


It's a dog's life

by twdeadfanfic



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl's PoV, F/M, POV Daryl Dixon, Reader's POV, Slow Burn, follows the events of season 1 and 2, there's a dog here and it won't die promise, violence and lenguage twd style
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-11-06 16:43:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 54,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17943449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twdeadfanfic/pseuds/twdeadfanfic
Summary: *Summary: The reader is new and alone at the quarry’s camp, the only one she has is her dog, who seems to be best friends with Daryl Dixon, a not so friendly man, but that friendship will bring the reader closer to Daryl, finding that there’s more to Daryl than what you can see at first glance…besides, he’s pretty hot at first glance, isn’t him?Most chapters are from reader's pov but several of them are from Daryl's pov too. It's set during season 1 and 2. Language and violence twd style. Slow burn.*Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My new series! I don't know what you all are going to think but I hope you'll like it because I loved writing it! I had a great time!

You yawned as you looked around at the camp, people going about with their morning activities. Carol was collecting clothes to do some laundry, Andrea and Amy were getting ready to go fishing, Dale was scouting the horizon on top of his RV, Shane and Glenn were talking as they looked at a map of what you guessed was Atlanta…

You, though, had just woken up. You should be getting ready and rush to help Carol or do anything that needed to be done, but your growling stomach reminded you to better have breakfast first, you barely had dinner yesterday. You were in need of a run for more supplies, that was probably the reason why Shane and Glenn were studying the map.

You took an almost empty can of peaches and sat down at the outside of your tent, busying yourself with your not so healthy breakfast. Your dog, Cole, began munching on the leftovers of his dinner, some squirrel’s innards.

When you heard footsteps approaching, you didn’t need to look up to see who was coming, the way in which your dog sat up like a flash, tail waggling like crazy, told you enough. Besides the kids, there was only one person he was so excited about seeing.

Daryl Dixon.

Cole had always been a friendly dog so it was no surprise he got along with almost everyone in the camp, but you still couldn’t make sense of his unrestrained love for Daryl. He wasn’t the friendliest one to be around, after all, but Cole adored him.

What surprised you even more was how Daryl seemed to reciprocate the feelings. You wouldn’t say he adored your dog, but he was always asking you to lend him Cole whenever he went to the woods, sneaking him food and snuggling him when he thought none was looking. Considering how Daryl was with the humans that lived in the camp, it was quite surprising.

With a bark, Cole launched himself at Daryl, his mouth open with his tongue out, almost looking like he was smiling.

“Hey, dog.” There it was, you wouldn’t catch Daryl smiling at anyone in the camp, yet he was grinning as he scratched Cole behind the ears.

Honestly, it was kind of cute, and more often than not you found yourself smiling at the sight of them. You had been confused at first and it had taken you a little bit to actually develop a friendship with Daryl. Although you weren’t sure if Daryl saw you as a friend or just a woman with a dog he liked, and certainly he didn’t seem to like you as much as he seemed to like your dog, but you couldn’t complain, he was nicer to you than to anyone else in that camp.

“Good morning to you, Daryl.” You greeted, it wasn’t the first time Daryl said hello to Cole and ignored you.

“Yeah, morning.” Daryl didn’t even look at you. “I’m going hunting, can I take the dog?”

“Sure…I’ve told you a thousand times he’s not a hunting dog, though.”

You hadn’t let him take your dog at first, and the first times Cole had actually gone hunting with Daryl, you had gone with them too, until you saw how skillful Daryl was and you trusted he wouldn’t let anything happen to the dog. He’d promised you he’d keep Cole safe of walkers and any other threats.

Besides, just in a few days after meeting Daryl it was evident how much Daryl and Cole liked each other, it was obvious Daryl would never hurt your dog and wouldn’t let anything bad happen to him, so you trusted him. And Cole loved to be with Daryl.

“Yeah I know, he’s shit at hunting,” Daryl replied, his words at odds with the way in which he was looking at your dog.

“So why do you take him with you then?” You asked, and Daryl just shrugged, making you smirk. You knew he would never admit he loved your dog and his company.

“He tells me if there are walkers close.”

“And how exactly does he do that? By barking and bringing every walker around to you?”

“Yeah, I have to teach him another way…” Daryl replied, biting his thumbnail and frowning.

“Good luck with that.” You joked, Cole had never been fond of learning tricks or things like that…but by now you were sure if someone could teach him, that was Daryl. “Anyway, you told me you wouldn’t let Cole get close to walkers…”

“I don’t.” Daryl rushed to assure you. “I shoot them before they can get close or we leave, I ain’t letting them get your dog, told you I wouldn’t.”

You weren’t sure if he was telling you that to reassure you and calm you down, or just because he was afraid you might not lend him Cole anymore if you thought he was putting him in danger. Which you wouldn’t, but you believed Daryl, if he told you he’d keep your dog safe, then he would. And honestly, if Daryl asked Cole to go with him, you weren’t sure you’d be able to stop your dog from following him, considering how he adored Daryl. You always joked saying he was stealing Cole’s love from you, but sometimes you got actually jealous. Not that you’d ever say it aloud, though.

“Alright, come on, go hunt us dinner,” you said. “But if something were to happen to my dog-”

“You put one of my arrows up my ass and tie me to a tree to be walker’s food, yeah, I know, you told me plenty of times,” Daryl smirked. “Like you could do it anyway…”

“You’re saying I can’t beat your ass?” You teased. “Don’t make me do it.”

“Yeah, sure. Come on, dog.” Daryl began walking to the woods, Cole behind him, happily wagging his tail. “Ain’t letting nothing hurt your dog,” Daryl told you without looking back.

You knew he wouldn’t, Daryl was the most skillful person that you knew, the best at surviving. Your dog wasn’t safer with anyone else, not even you.

If you thought about it, you had kind of trusted Daryl since the beginning, after all, he was the one who had found you and Cole in the woods, starving.

He had been hunting nearby but you hadn’t noticed him until Cole had begun barking like crazy. You had turned around expecting to see one of those monsters but found yourself face to face with Daryl and his crossbow.

“Hush, you’ll bring every dead asshole to us!“ It was kind of fun that the first sentence you had heard from Daryl was to your dog. Quite fitting.

Daryl had seemed almost as surprised as you to find someone else but he had taken you to his camp at the quarry, telling you he and his brother hadn’t been there for long but that the people weren’t too bad and you’d be safe enough from the monsters.

You had been taken in and introduced to everyone, it had been a bit overwhelming but you had been grateful nonetheless and the kids of the camp had been exultant to find you had a dog.

That night you had dined at the fire in the middle of the camp, stew made from rabbits Daryl had hunted. Daryl wasn’t there, though, he was making dinner for him and his brother at his own fire in front of their tents, which were slightly away from the others. 

There had been another small fire next to an also separated tent. It was from a man neither you nor your dog liked and his lovely wife, the mother of one of the kids. You had noticed Daryl giving her some of the rabbit meat so she could have dinner even if his husband didn’t want to join the others.

You had shared your dinner with Cole, he had been starving as much as you but you felt bad about asking those people to give you a bit more of stew for your dog, they were already feeding you their scarce food and they didn’t know you.

However, your dog had his way of finding his own dinner…

Then…

You’d finished getting a spare tent that Dale had lent you ready for the night when you realized your dog was missing. You panicked slightly, Cole was usually never far from you, what if something had happened to him? What if for some reason he had decided to go back to the woods and a monster had gotten him?

“Cole?” you called quietly, not wanting to bother anyone. “Where are you?”

To your relief, there were a couple barks that you followed until you found Cole, though that relief was short lived when you saw he was munching on something.

“What I told you about eating anything you find on the ground?!” It wasn’t like someone there might want to poison him, but still you didn’t like your dog eating something he had found and you didn’t know what was.

“He didn’t find it on the ground." 

You were startled to hear a voice close but when you looked around in the dark you noticed you were next to the Dixon’s tents, their fire already dead. You made the silhouette of Daryl sat down on a log outside his tent.

“It’s rabbit, I gave it to him, it ain’t poisoned or nothing.”

“Thank you.“ You were taken aback. “You didn’t have to.”

"He gotta eat too.”

“I gave him half my dinner already…seems he didn’t think about sharing his with me…”

 

Since that day, Daryl gave you and Cole part of whatever he cooked for his brother and himself. He always said it was for the dog, but you knew he made sure there was always enough for Cole and you.

His brother didn’t like it at first, claiming he was wasting food. Then he suggested some ways in which you could pay back for the food they gave to Cole and for Daryl rescuing you. Both Daryl and your growling dog put an end to that, though.

And since then, Daryl and Cole’s big friendship began.

A few days later, Daryl asked you if he could take your dog hunting with him. You didn’t agree until a week later, and only if you could go with them.

Daryl had been complaining all the time… 

“You are just gonna be slowing me down all the time” He grumbled. “If you trip on a root or something and break an ankle I ain’t carrying you ass back to camp.”

“It’s not my first time in the woods you know?!” You spat back. “I worked in it, I know what I’m doing, so shut up!”

“You shut up, you’re scaring the game.”

You decided not to reply to that, just rolling your eyes at him, and followed him in silence for hours, watching as he managed to hunt a couple of squirrels, until he decided to stop to eat something. You had been tired and were grateful to stop for a bit, but in no way you were going to tell that to Daryl. He got some dried meat out of his bag, passing you some. As he began to eat his portion, he also started giving little pieces to Cole.

“You’re buying my dog with food.”

“I ain’t buying anyone.”

Truth be told, for some reason Cole loved Daryl no matter if he sneaked him food or not, always looking for him when he was on the camp or going to happily greet him when he came back from hunting. And there was no doubt Cole had been all excited about going hunting with Daryl for once. You wondered if you were starting to feel jealous…

“You said you worked in the forest,” Daryl said, taking you out of your thoughts. “Wasn’t a bluff?”

“Of course it wasn’t!” It was a bit of lie…but you didn’t want to back down now. “I worked in my parent’s business and I did most of my job in the woods.” You were stretching the truth a bit, but you wanted Daryl to respect you.

“Yeah? And what business was that?” Daryl arched an eyebrow at you.

“Are you gonna tell me what was your family’s business too?” You retorted, evasively.

It made Daryl go dead silent, his expression changing, making you wonder briefly if you had said something wrong.

“Come on,” He said as he got up. “I have to keep hunting, can’t feed everyone with just a couple squirrels.”

By the time you made your way back to the camp, he had hunted a couple more of squirrels and a rabbit too and was complaining about how he could have hunted more if he hadn’t had to take you along with him but you were ignoring him.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” You asked after a while of silence.

“You’re gonna ask anyway, aren’t you?” He replied, making you smirk.

“Yep. Can you let me try your crossbow?”

Daryl turned to look at you like if you were crazy or had insulted him.

“You wanna strain a muscle, shoot yourself, or what?”

“I’m not shooting myself!” You rolled your eyes. “I can shoot a bow, so it can’t be much different.”

“You can shoot a bow? Really?” Daryl frowned at you, he didn’t seem to believe you, but it was true. “For your family business too?”

“Kind of…”

“Now you’ll tell me you hunted too.” He snorted.

“No, no I didn’t.”

“That was pretty obvious after today.”

“Are you letting me try the crossbow or what?”

“No.”

“Okay, fine, great, I bet it’s a thousand times easier than the bow anyway.” You huffed. “I bet you couldn’t shoot a bow even if you tried.”

Daryl glared at you at that, taking off his crossbow to throw it to you. It was heavier than you had expected, heavier than a bow.

“Fine, sunshine, come on, shot us another squirrel.” He growled at you.

“Can’t see any squirrel.”

You began charging the crossbow, it took a lot of your strength to tense the string but you tried not to show it. Once it was ready, you aimed at a tree, finding a darker point in the bark that you decided was your target. You shoot at it, the crossbow shifting unexpectedly in your hands, different than a bow, and you failed miserably.

“Shit…” You grumbled, glaring at Daryl when he snorted.

“Come on, it’ll be dark before you can hit the nearest tree.” He said, taking the crossbow and shouldering it again.

“Shut up.”

Now…

 

As always, Daryl came back before the sunset. He made his way to his tent and Cole turned to ran to you.

“At least you have the decency to come to greet me after begin all day away.” You had no shame about talking with your dog. “Thought that by now you’d have moved with Daryl, uh?”

Cole barked and you wished you knew what it meant.

You looked towards Daryl’s tent and saw him sitting down outside, skinning a rabbit. You decided to go help him, you weren’t too good at helping him get his kills ready yet, and sometimes it still turned your stomach, but you were learning. 

You sat down beside him and he tossed you another rabbit. Cole soon grew bored of watching you two working and he went to play with the kids.

Daryl was silent and surly, even more than usual, and you knew something was bothering him but you weren’t going to push him or he would snap. If he wanted to then he would tell you. If not, then he could be angry by himself.

“Two rabbits ain’t gonna feed all of us for shit.“ He grumbled when you were finished. 

“We still have some of those cans of tomato soup that Glenn brought from Atlanta.” You said matter of factly. “We’ll make a stew with them and the rabbits.”

“There gotta be more deer around.“ 

A few days after you joined the camp, Daryl had come back from hunting with a deer over his shoulders but since then it seemed he hadn’t found any other. You guessed the deer had run away scared by the smells and sounds coming from your camp and by the walkers around. 

"I think I’m going to go further into the woods, stay the night maybe, see if I can find something.”

“Are you sure?” You frowned, staying the night in the woods didn’t sound that safe. 

“I’m used to, and there’s barely any walkers around, I told you.“

"Alright.”

Suddenly you thought on something. 

“And are you going to want to take Cole with you?” You didn’t like the idea of getting separated from your dog for so long and him getting further into the woods and staying the night. 

Daryl shrugged, biting his thumbnail. 

“Maybe… But I know you don’t want your dog to be out of here for two days.”

You didn’t, you knew you would be all the time worried sick about him. Neither did you want Daryl to be gone for that long, and alone… Maybe Merle could go with him or something. 

“I was thinking…” Daryl began again, shifting awkwardly. “That maybe you could come. If you want to, with the dog…”

You hadn’t expected that and you blinked at Daryl, taken aback. He never asked anyone to go hunting with him and the couple of times you had gone with him, back at the beginning, he hadn’t seemed too happy about it. 

“Or don’t, I don’t need your dog or nothing…” He began to backtrack. 

“You really want me to go?” You asked and Daryl just shrugged without looking at you. “Okay, okay, I’d really like to.”

“Alright.”

“Are you going to be complaining all the time again about me slowing you or scaring the game again?” You teased. 

“If you do it…“ You noticed a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. 

You didn’t know why you were so excited about going to the woods for almost two days, you ought to be scared, you should have said no, but you were happy Daryl had asked you, no matter it probably was because he wanted your dog’s company, not yours, but still, he didn’t ask everyone to go hunting with him. 

"Deal, then.” You grinned and whistled at Cole so he’d come. “You know what, boy?” You said, scratching your dog behind the ears. “I’m going hunting with you and Daryl! Are you happy I’m going with you two? You better are.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, Daryl asked to the reader if she wanted to go on a hunting trip with him and the dog…there we go!

A couple of days after Daryl asked you, you joined him on his hunting trip.

You had left the camp early, after having breakfast with Shane and Glenn who were planning a trip to Atlanta for that day or the next. It was the first time Glenn was allowing some of the others to go with him in hopes that together they could find and bring back a bigger haul. Maybe you could join them for the next trip, but for now you were content enough with joining Daryl.

You followed him in silence for hours, Cole running excitedly behind him. You didn’t know where you were going, Daryl walked like he had a map in his head, and you didn’t bother to ask. Sometimes he stopped to look around like he was tracking something and then he would keep walking.

Daryl didn’t say a single word to you, you could think that he had even forgotten about you if it weren’t because when he seemed to notice you were getting behind, he would slow his pace until you caught up. He didn’t say anything about it, and neither did you. Cole ignored you more than what you would have liked, seeming overexcited about the trip.

Honestly, you were enjoying it too. You always liked to hike through the woods, and you had spent quite a bit of time in them. Not as much as Daryl, apparently, neither were you an expert like he seemed to be. But you enjoyed being out there nonetheless and you tried to pay attention to the way in which Daryl moved, especially when he seemed to track something, hoping to learn a thing or two, though you weren’t having much success.

You supposed you ought to be scared, but you weren’t. You hadn’t seen any walker around yet and anyway you trusted Daryl. He was skillful at noticing them and putting them down, and he always came back safe and sound from his trips, always keeping your dog safe too. You couldn’t help but feel he’d keep all of you safe.

“Shouldn’t we be hunting?” You asked after hours of walking without Daryl shooting anything. You were starting to get tired and bored of walking non-stop, even though you were used to walking.

“Not yet, I want to go further than usual. Told you.” Daryl answered without stopping or looking at you.

“Okay…” You looked around at the maze of trees. “How do you know where you are going and how to come back and all that?” You were starting to get bored at the lack of conversation.

“I just do.” Daryl didn’t seem that talkative, though.

“I mean…I could usually get oriented with my compass and all that, with the sun too a little…but this…right now I don’t know where I am, all trees look the same.” You admitted.

“Said you can get oriented with the sun? Then it’s easy.” Daryl finally stopped though he didn’t quite look at you. “Camp is there, that’s where we have to go to come back.” He pointed to what you thought was the south. “That’s the area where I’ve gone most times.” He pointed to the north. “And there’s where I found the deer, I want to go further than what I did that day.” He pointed to the west and began walking in that direction again.

“Alright…” You were glad he had stopped to teach you something, though you weren’t sure you’d be quite able to go back to the camp by yourself. It’d be easier now that you could get oriented a bit better, though. “Can you get oriented with the stars?”

“Not much.” He answered without looking at you.

“I can, a little bit, my mom taught me. I could teach you what I know if you want…” You were expecting him to snap or tell you to shut up, but he didn’t, he just nodded.

Daryl didn’t stop again until a couple of hours later.

“This is where I found the deer, more or less…” He said more to himself than to you. “We could set camp in that clear.”

“Okay.”

You began walking towards the clear Daryl had pointed, him right behind you, looking around. Once there, you flopped down onto the ground.

“What you doing?” Daryl frowned at you.

“You said we’re gonna set camp here.” You replied, stretching your legs.

“Get off your ass, there’s still a few sun hours left.” He grumbled.

“Alright…” You let out a tired sigh.

Daryl looked at you for a second, chewing on his lip, before averting his eyes again.

“Stay here, I’m going to hunt us dinner.” He said.

“No, no, I’ll go with you.”

Daryl had taken you hunting with him, you didn’t want to look lazy, and you didn’t want him having to go alone when you were there. Neither did you want to stay alone in the woods, no matter Daryl was around and you hadn’t seen any walker.

“Okay, come on.”

You followed him in silence as he walked, tracking and looking around as if in deep thought.

“We’ll follow that direction tomorrow.” He murmured and you nodded though you didn’t know if he was talking to you or not…maybe he was talking to Cole.

“You don’t need to hunt us dinner, we have that can of beans.” You said quietly.

“We better save the cans for when we don’t have nothing else…hush.”

There was a sound up in a tree and you looked up to find a squirrel sniffing the air on a tree branch. Before it could know what was happening, Daryl had already shot it. You wondered if he ever missed.

Back at the clear, you worked on getting a small fire going while Daryl skinned the squirrel and got it ready. By the time you were dining on roasted squirrel, the sun was starting to go down, and you admired the sunset, beautiful even after the world had gone to hell.

Daryl was silent the whole time, although you caught him looking at you through the corner of his eye from time to time.

“What?” You asked, curious.

“Nothing.” He looked away and you could swear he was blushing.

“Come on!” You nudged his foot with yours and he moved his foot away. “Just tell me.”

“You told me you worked in the woods…” Daryl eventually said, when you thought he wouldn’t. “Was it true?”

“Well…kind of…I mean…”

“So it wasn’t?” Daryl cut you off.

“It’s not that.” You said, defensively. You wanted to come clean with him but you didn’t know how to do it without seeming like you had been lying and trying to impress him. “It’s…I worked in the woods, sometimes, but not as you’re expecting it, probably…”

Daryl raised his eyebrows at you, waiting for you to explain it.

“Alright…I lived with my parents in a village, it’s not that far from here actually, in a big country house that my parents also used as a bed & breakfast. They’d organize all kind of “adventure” activities for our guests, like we’d take them for trips to the nearby forest, hiking and all that, camp for a night if they wanted, take them to the river for fishing, canoeing or whatever…that kind of stuff…”

Daryl hummed, he wasn’t saying anything but he seemed interested in what you were saying, so you kept going.

“I joined them whenever I could since I was little, and once I finished high school I officially joined the business, and at some point, it was me who did the outdoor activities while my parents worked at home. So, that is.”

“So you did spend a lot of time in the woods,” Daryl said when you were finished. “Doing weird shit to entertain people, but whatever.” That made you snort, and you nudged him with your shoulder.

“I guess…I don’t really know how to survive or anything, I don’t know half the stuff my parents did, they were the experts. I just took people through the same paths always, camped in the same places, showed them the same stuff…”

“What did you show them?”

“Nothing special…just the animals we crossed paths with, like different birds and all that. The different trees and plants, and all that, like what kind of mushrooms and berries they could eat, which plants can be medicinal, stuff that my mother taught me. I just know the most basic, not even half of what my mom knew.”

“When you go to the woods near the camp you always come back with berries and mushrooms, Amy said you taught her which ones she could pick,” Daryl said, surprising you. “And you’re always picking up plants, you were doing it today as you walked too.” Another surprise, you didn’t know Daryl had noticed it or paid attention.

“Yeah well…I bet you know all about that too.” After all, Daryl seemed to spend more time in the woods than out.

“Not really.” He shrugged. “I mean, that one time I got lost in the woods for days as a kid I knew which berries wouldn’t kill me to eat but I wiped my ass with poison oak so…”

You bursted laughing at that, you couldn’t help it, and you grinned when you heard Daryl chucking too.

“You getting lost in the woods? Nah, I can’t believe it.”

“I was little, but I found my way back home and I never got lost again.” Daryl shrugged.

“Little you found the way back home all alone? Yeah, that does sound like you.” You grinned again. “I can see you with your little crossbow and what not.” You teased and Daryl scoffed, blushing, though the corner of his mouth lifted in a tiny smile.

“Didn’t have a crossbow yet, wasn’t good at hunting either. Took me nine days to find my way back and I was so hungry once home I made the biggest sandwich I’ve ever eaten.”

“You were out there for nine days?!” Truly Daryl had been a survivor since he was little. “None went looking for you?”

“Merle was in juvie. Dad wasn’t around, he was off with a waitress I think, he never knew I was gone, don’t think he’d have cared.”

You didn’t know what to say to that. Neither Merle nor Daryl had ever talked about their family, and you were saddened by what you were hearing. It seemed little Daryl hadn’t really had someone taking care of him, and it hurt you more than what you had expected.

“When he came back home and found I’d emptied the fridge to make that sandwich he wasn’t happy, though…” Daryl said quietly.

“Well, your father sounds like an ass.” You said, unable to stop yourself.

“Yeah, yeah he was.”

You didn’t want Daryl to keep thinking about that, sure it wasn’t bringing him good memories, and so you thought about something to say.

“I could teach you the plants I know.” You tried. “So you don’t end up wiping your ass with poison oak again.”

“I know what poison oak looks like,” Daryl replied, nudging your foot with his and rolling his eyes.

“I’m still waiting for you to teach me to shoot your crossbow…”

You had tried it a couple times more, but it was still difficult for you to hit your target. Although Daryl had, reluctantly, let you try, he hadn’t taught you anything and you thought you’d learn faster if he did.

“Can you really shoot a bow?” Daryl asked. “Cos you’re shit with the crossbow.”

“Shut up!”

Daryl was smiling softly, though, so you knew he was just joking. Still, it was true you weren’t exactly good with the crossbow.

“I’ll let you know that I’m quite good with a bow. My father taught me, I’ve been shooting bows since I was a little girl. Never hunting or anything like that, just for fun, sometimes we taught our guests as another activity.” You explained. “My dad liked to handmade custom bows and arrows…He made me my own bow when I was sixteen. I wish I had it with me.” You let out a sad sigh but tried not to let the memories get you down, burying them deep inside you again. “You make your own arrows too, right?”

Daryl nodded.

“Dad taught me, though I didn’t like to make arrows that much, it was too much work. Not sure if the ones we made for bows could work in a crossbow, though. We could try.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you work in the woods too?” You asked. “Or it was just a hobby?”

“You should sleep, got to wake up early tomorrow,” Daryl said instead of answering your questions.

You were surprised by his sudden change of topic, but you decided not to push it. You shifted until you were down on your back over the blanket that you had spread and you looked up at the stars.

“That’s the north star.” You said, pointing at the bright star. “You know that one, right.”

Daryl hummed a yes and you began telling him what your mother had told you about the stars, how to navigate with them, track the past of time, even some stories here and there.

“That’s ridiculous,” Daryl said as you told him about the hunter Orion, though that constellation wasn’t visible. “You bury the hide of a bull and you pee on it and then a kid grows like a potato?”

“Yeah, I know.” You chuckled. “Gods do stuff like that sometimes I guess. Anyway, I don’t like Orion that much, he was always boasting about what a good hunter he was, said he’d hunt every single wild animal, the ass, as if animals hadn’t the right to live here too.”

“You seemed quite upset with a potato kid that never existed.”

“Can’t help it.” You shrugged, smiling. “Goddess Artemis wasn’t having that though, so she sent Scorpio to kill Orion, Orion couldn’t escape and that was the death of the potato hunter.”

“A scorpion killed him? Then he wasn’t that good of a hunter.”

“Mind you, it was a damn giant scorpion. Look,” You pointed at Scorpio. “He’s still there, chasing after Orion forever.”

You were enjoying this, telling Daryl everything you knew about the stars, telling him stories. You turned your head to look at him and smiled. He was sitting down, head tilted back as he looked up at the stars, frown on his face.

“Doesn’t look like a scorpion to me…” He muttered.

“Yeah, neither to me.” You chuckled and Daryl looked at you with a small smile on his face. “Can’t see any form in the stars, actually, but it’s fun anyway.”

You stiffed a yawn, you were tired after spending all day walking and you were beginning to feel sleepy, your eyelids getting heavy. Daryl noticed.

“Sleep.” He told you. “I’ll keep watch.”

“Alright.” You were dead tired. “Wake me up so you can sleep too, okay?”

The weather was summery good but you covered yourself with a thin blanket as you curled up onto your side. Your dog had fallen asleep long ago, bored at your conversation about stars, and you smiled looking at him growling softly from time to time as if dreaming.

Your smile widened when you looked at Daryl. This was the longest you had spent with him and you were enjoying it so much, you could just hope he’d want to take you hunting with him more times.

It was the longest you had talked to him too, and although it’d been you doing most of the talking, you were happily surprised Daryl had gotten to share with you some things about his past. You found yourself wanting to know him more.

You still didn’t know if you were friends or not, but you wanted to. Daryl could be surly and harsh with words sometimes, but you appreciated his company nonetheless and liked to talk to him, especially when he decided to speak too, day by day you were surer he was a really good guy.

When he wasn’t with his brother, then he was alone, and you felt drawn to him somehow. Maybe it was because he had found you and taken you to the camp, maybe it was because he had taken a liking on your dog, or maybe just because you thought you both were lonely, but you liked to be with him.

You hadn’t really developed friendships with the people at the camp. You talked with everybody, well, besides Ed, and you didn’t talk that much with Merle if you could help it either, but besides those two, you liked the people you now lived with, you had fun with them and appreciated them, but you wouldn’t really say you were friends yet.

It wasn’t like you were shy or anything like that, you had always found it easy to get along with people, to talk with them, but you were used to people coming and going out of your life without staying for too long, and so you had never developed a deep friendship with anyone, you had never relied on any friend, besides your dog.

It seems it was the same now with these people, it was easy for you to get along with them, have fun, help them, talk to them, but you knew you weren’t a priority for anyone, which you didn’t mind that much anyway. Most of them were families or had someone to rely on already, and you felt out of place. Not with Daryl, though.

Still smiling, you closed your eyes and fell asleep, sure that you had nothing to worry about in that wood with Daryl next to you.

When you woke up, you knew by the position of the stars that several hours had passed and Daryl hadn’t woken you up.

“Hey,” you rubbed your eyes as you sat up. “Told you to wake me up.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, come on, you can still get some sleep before the sunrise.” You insisted but Daryl shook his head. “You need sleep too, I’ll even let you snuggle with Cole.” Your dog opened a sleepy eye at the mention of his name.

“I don’t snuggle with none,” Daryl grumbled.

“Sure, okay.” You chuckled quietly. “Come on, we can be arguing about it for the rest of the night instead of sleeping or you can get a bit of sleep.”

“Fine…”

Reluctantly, he lied down on the ground, turning onto his side, his back to you. Once you were sure he was asleep, you got up and laid your thin blanket over him carefully so as not to wake him.

Cole stirred and yawned as he noticed you moving.

“Sleep, boy.” You whispered, sitting down again.

Your dog got up but only to get closer to you, resting his head on your thigh as he lied down again.

“You do like to snuggle, don’t you?” You said fondly, patting Cole’s head and scratching him behind the ears. “His loss…”

When the first rays of sun began to beam, Daryl woke up. As soon as Cole noticed him stirring, he ran to him and began trying to lick his face.

“Damn, dog!” Daryl grumbled as he tried to dodge the licks, pushing Cole away. “Get off me!”

You could see he was smiling, though, and you rolled your eyes. Daryl was such a softie with your dog.

“Morning, Daryl.” You greeted. “Bet you have never had someone so excited to wake up next to you.” You joked.

“What?” Daryl looked at you weird.

“Nothing…” You chuckled. “Breakfast?”

Same that you had done the day before, you followed Daryl in silence. Every time he shot a squirrel you tried to pay attention to the way in which he wielded the crossbow, the way he aimed, trying to learn something for the next time he let you try.

As you walked, you picked up some herbs here and there.

“This one helps if you have an upset stomach,” you were telling Daryl. “Got a lot of them already, I guess it might be useful if-”

You stopped talking when Daryl hushed you and you followed his gaze to find a rabbit eating grass some meters away, still unaware of your presence. Unfortunately, Cole noticed too, and he began running to him and barking, scaring him away.

“Shit, dog, no!” Daryl rushed after the dog and the rabbit.

“Cole!” You ran behind them too. “Come here!”

Your dog finally listened, running back to you, but the rabbit was gone.

“I’m sorry.” You apologized to Daryl. “He’s sorry too.”

“Nah, he ain’t.” Daryl didn’t seem mad, though. “Told you, he’s a shit of a hunter.”

“He does this when you take him hunting?”

“Sometimes.” Daryl shrugged and began walking again.

“Then why you take him with you?”

Daryl didn’t answer and you smiled, shaking your head. He did like your dog’s company, but he’d never admit it.

“Anyway, I’m gonna teach him to stop barking, so…” He said without looking at you.

“Good luck with that.”

“Bet he’ll learn before you can hunt something.”

You saw his face and knew he was joking. Before you could say anything, though, you heard some movement coming from behind some trees and you saw a walker limping towards you.

“It’s okay.”

Daryl said, aiming and hitting the monster in the middle of the forehead with his arrow.

“You think the barks drew it to us?” You asked while Daryl retrieved his arrow.

“Yeah…another reason to teach him to stay silent…come on, be quiet.”

You kept following Daryl, trying to stay as quiet as possible, until he stopped and bent down to look at the ground. You didn’t notice the footprints until Daryl pointed them to you.

“Deer?”

He nodded, small smile on his face.

“Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved to write this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it!
> 
> Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked it! If you have a moment, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, your feedback makes my day!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, we left Daryl and the Reader tracking a deer in the woods. We pick it up from there…this chapter is on the longer side, I wanted to get all of this into it, but I’ll hope you’ll enjoy it.

When you found the deer, you wished you hadn't. The poor thing was dead on the ground, four walkers feasting on it.

  
Daryl signaled you to go back and you nodded trying to stay completely quiet. Cole began growling when he saw the walkers and you tried to shush him without making more sound.  
  
"Dog, no!" Daryl said quietly.  
  
One of the walkers raised its head, spotting you, and when it began growling Cole barked back.  
  
"Cole, stop!"  
  
He did, but it was too late, the walkers had spotted you and were stumbling towards you. You didn't know what would be best, try to fight them or run away.   
  
Daryl was already raising his crossbow and shooting one dead, so you unsheathed your knife. As Daryl reloaded, you made your way to the closer walker, grabbing it and struggling to sink your knife into its head as you had seen Daryl do before. You heard a whistle and another one dropped dead with an arrow in his forehead.   
  
You managed to kill the walker you were struggling with and you turned around to face the one that was left, but you saw Daryl had let go of his crossbow in favor of his knife and was already putting it down.   
  
Looking around you made sure there were no walkers left and that Cole was okay, and finally your heart began relaxing its anxious beating. Daryl was looking at the dead deer, silent, and you approached him.   
  
“Come on, let's keep going." You told him quietly, placing a hand on his arm. Daryl flinched at that and you took your hand away.   
  
"Nah, let's go back," He said and he began walking away.   
  
"We can find another deer..." You tried.   
  
"I said no." He snapped.   
  
"Alright... “  
  
"All that dead assholes must have scared all the deer away if they didn't eat them all," Daryl said angrily.   
  
"You still have all those squirrels." You pointed at the string he carried but his only answer was a grunt.   
  
You had been walking for hours, Daryl still silent, stopping to shoot at a squirrel here and there. You thought you were approaching the camp but you weren’t sure. You stopped, getting a little behind, when you saw some edible mushrooms, and as you knelt down on the ground to pick them, you noticed some footprints on the mud.

“Daryl.” You called.

“Come on, don’t get behind!” Daryl sounded annoyed.

“Will you just come here!” You bitted back, rolling your eyes.

He grumbled something you didn’t catch as he approached. “What?”

“Could this be from a deer?”

“Yeah, yeah, good spot.” His scowl disappeared and he gave you a half smile, making you smile back. “Come on.”

You followed Daryl in silence, crouching down when you found the deer. It was looking around and smelling the air, though it couldn’t see you from where you were hiding in some bushes.

Maybe you were weak, but when Daryl raised his crossbow and aimed at the lovely deer, you looked away, no matter you knew you needed the food you couldn’t look as Daryl killed it.

“Shit, damn.”

You heard Daryl cursing and you looked in time to see the deer running away with an arrow embedded into his back leg.

“Did you miss?”

“It ran away when I was shooting,” Daryl grumbled. “Come on.”

You rushed behind him, following the deer’s track, until Daryl stopped, signaling you to crouch again. The deer seemed startled, looking around, and you wondered if it had noticed you. Daryl had just loosened an arrow when the deer ran away again, the arrow hitting one of his back legs once more.

“Goddamit!”

“You think it noticed us?” You asked as you looked around for something else that could have scared the deer.

“Dunno,” Daryl said while he reloaded. “Didn’t think so. Come on.”

“Maybe we should let it go and go back to camp…” It was clear that the deer was running away from something and it was starting to make you paranoid.

“What, no way, come on.”

The next time Daryl found the deer he made you stop further away, just in case, and you held Cole next to you hoping he wouldn’t make any noise. The deer still seemed scared, pacing around, but this time Daryl managed to hit it on its side, over its front leg, but still the deer didn’t stop and it ran away again.

“Shit!”

“We’ve found the most stubborn deer in all the wood.” You commented as you followed Daryl.

“Yeah, come on.” Daryl began tracking the animal again. “We gotta kill it, can’t leave it like that, it’d die slow, it’s cruel.”

Daryl was right and so you followed him, noticing the deer was headed towards your camp. It couldn’t be too hard to get it now.

“Son of a bitch!”

Daryl cursed when you both saw the deer you’d been tracking dead on the ground, all disemboweled, a dead walker on top of it. Around it, there were some people from your camp, along with a man you didn’t know.

“That’s my deer!” Daryl yelled as he approached it. “Look at it. All gnawed on by this....filthy, disease-bearing, motherless poxy bastard!” He cursed as he kicked the walker.

It was the second time a walker got first to a deer you had been tracking, it was unfair…and that poor animal hadn’t deserved to end like that. You were still looking sadly at the deer when suddenly the beheaded walker opened its eyes and snapped, making you gasp, startled.

“Come on, people.” Daryl shot an arrow into its forehead. “It gotta be the head. You know nothing?”

With that, he turned back to the camp, calling for his brother.

“Who’s that?” You whispered to Glenn, nodding at the strange man.

“Rick, we found him in Atlanta,” Glenn explained in another whisper. “He’s Lori’s husband, Y/N.”

You looked at him with wide, surprised eyes. You’d been told Rick was dead…and even if he was alive, how he had managed to find Lori and Carl?

“I don’t know much more.” Glenn shrugged at your questioning eyes. “Hey, you’re Daryl’s friend, right?”

You were taken aback by his question and weren’t sure of what to say.

“My dog’s his friend…”

“Well, Cole can’t help us tell him we left Merle in Atlanta…”

“What?!”

“You know how Merle is…he was threatening us with a gun, so Rick handcuffed him to a roof…” Glenn began explaining and although it sounded plausible, you knew Daryl was going to be beyond mad, which was understandable too. “But there were walkers coming, we had to run away…and we left Merle there.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah, we don’t know how to tell Daryl, so-” Glenn was cut off by a commotion coming from the camp. “Too late, come on!”

When you reached the camp you saw Daryl fighting Rick only to be dragged back by Shane, arm around his throat. Your dog was having nothing of that though, and he ran to them, barking and growling. You rushed to catch him, dragging him away from the men by his collar, you didn’t want to make everything even worse.

Once the situation calmed down a bit, you let go of Cole. Daryl had gone to sit down by himself far from the camp, and your dog began walking towards him.

“Cole, no!” With how worked up Daryl was, you weren’t sure he’d welcome your dog. “Leave him alone.”

Your dog ignored you, making his way to Daryl, and you reluctantly followed him, getting a bit behind. Daryl didn’t seem to realize Cole was approaching him until he bumped his head to his side, and you were surprised when Daryl reached out to pull your dog to his side and bury his face into his fur.

Your heart went to him at the sight. You had heard that T-Dog had chained the door of the roof in hopes it’d stop the walkers that infested Atlanta, but still, you could understand Daryl being worried about the monsters getting to his brother anyway.

You didn’t know what to do but you decided to leave him alone. You must have made a noise when you turned to walk away, though, Daryl’s head snapped up and he pulled away from your dog. He seemed to relax ever so slightly when he noticed it was you, but he still seemed rather uncomfortable and upset.

“Didn’t mean to bother you,” you said quietly.

Daryl said nothing, he just shrugged and rubbed his eyes furiously while looking away from you. You bit your lip, unsure about approaching him, but finally you went to sit next to him.

“Merle’s going to be fine, T-Dog closed the door, the walkers can’t get him, you’ll bring him back.” You said quietly to Daryl and he grunted. “T-Dog, Rick and Glenn are getting ready to go with you.”

“Lucky me,” Daryl said bitterly.

You knew he didn’t really get along with anyone and he was mad at everyone after what had happened with his brother. Obviously he wasn’t thrilled about them going with him, but it was better than going alone.

“I could go with you too.” You surprised yourself with your offer, you didn’t know what had made you do it. You had never gone to Atlanta. But you knew Daryl got along with you a little bit better than with the others, so maybe that could help him.

“No.” Daryl shook his head. “Atlanta’s full of walkers, you heard Glenn.”

“Okay.” You weren’t sure if he was worried about you or if it was just that he thought you couldn’t deal with that many walkers and would mess up everything. You rather think the first.

“Gonna get everything ready.” Daryl sat up abruptly. “We should have left already.”

“Okay…be careful.”

Daryl looked at you over his shoulder, frowning but nodding his head before walking away.

*

The mood in the camp wasn’t the best after the little group went back to Atlanta. Some of the women went to the creek to do laundry but you sneaked away after seeing Ed was going too, for some reason. Maybe to keep an eye on Carol. You detested the man, you didn’t think anyone liked him and your dog was no exception. Cole’d be growling at Ed all the time and that’d make him angry, and then shit would happen. And you know it’d be Carol who’d pay it, and you didn’t want that to happen.

So instead, you went to the woods to pick up berries and mushrooms, and when you came back to the camp after a while, you busied yourself getting the squirrels Daryl has hunted ready, planning on making a stew with them and the mushrooms you had gotten.  
Shane walked by and you noticed his knuckles were bloodied.   
"What happened?"   
  
"Had a talk with Ed."  
  
"Well, it was about time." Honestly, you didn’t know why you tolerated him.  
  
Lori came to help you with the stew but her mind seemed to be elsewhere.   
  
"Rick's gonna be fine." You told her quietly. "Glenn knows what he's doing."  
  
"Sure." Lori nodded, giving you a tired smile.   
  
Some part of you wanted to ask her what was going on, how Rick was alive and had found her and Carl, and if you had been imaging things when you thought there was something between Shane and her. Which you didn't judge, she had thought she was a widow and Shane was always there for her. You knew you got kind of lonely in this apocalypse thing. You didn't ask anything, though, you didn't want the drama. Surprisingly, it was she who began asking questions.   
  
"You're Daryl's friend, right?" She made you remember Glenn's words.   
  
"My dog is his friend." You weren't sure if you were joking or not.   
  
"Well, you did spend the night in the woods with him."  
  
"We went hunting, we almost got a deer." You replied and Lori just hummed. "It's  not like when you and Shane disappear at the same time." You said before you could stop yourself.   
  
Lori looked at you wide-eyed before quickly busying herself with the stew.   
You let out a sigh, feeling bad at having upset her.   
  
"Yes, we're friends, why?" You tried to talk to her again. You weren't that sure Daryl would call you that but you hoped so.   
  
"Nothing." Lori shrugged. "Just... I don't know how... He's so rude all the time..."  
  
“That's not true, he's... Well he's not a people's person..." Lori was kind of right, though, Daryl was harsh with everyone, but you also knew there was more to him. "I know how he can be, but I think he has a good heart, you know?" Or maybe you were just imagining things because he liked to snuggle your dog.   
  
"If you say so..." Lori didn't seem that sure. "But you saw him this morning, he attacked Rick."   
  
"Cos he left his brother handcuffed to a roof..."   
  
"Because he was threatening the others!"   
  
"I know, I know..." You understood both points of view. "But if there's something I know about Daryl is that he loves his brother, how did you expect him to react?" It was true, the older Dixon had Daryl totally under his thumb and you couldn't understand it, but there was no doubt about Daryl's love for his brother.   
  
"Come on Lori, what if it'd have been Merle who had come from Atlanta saying he left Rick handcuffed to a roof cos he was a threat?"   
  
"Then Merle would be in this stew," Lori replied, making you snort.   
  
"I rather not eat that." You said, and both of you chucked.   
  
"What you said...about Shane and me..." Lori began.   
  
"I'm not saying it again." You assured her.   
  
"Does someone else know?"   
  
"I don't know..." You felt bad seeing the despair in Lori's eyes grow. "It's nobody's business... For all you knew your husband was dead, in the middle of the apocalypse, and Shane was here, having your back, and he's kind of hot, so...you're human, woman." Lori gave you a sad smile but said nothing else. "I wouldn't like to be you right now, though..."  
  
"Yeah."

  
"Just... I don't know, I understand you I guess, I'm kind of tired of feeling alone in the world..." You admitted. You usually tried not to think about the people you had lost and never talked about them, first time had been last night to Daryl. "I'd like not having to sleep alone too."  
  
"You didn't sleep alone last night," Lori said and you nudged her with your shoulder.   
  
"Told you it's not like that."   
  
"Okay, okay... It's just... You're kind of the only person he really talks to, besides Merle, without being an ass..."  
  
"Cos he's trying to steal my dog, right boy?" You said as you sneaked Cole a piece of squirrel. "Besides he can be plenty of an ass when he wants to, I promise."  
  
"I still think you're the closest thing to a friend he has here."  
  
"Well...I'd like to think that."  
  
*  
You all had dinner, night fell, and Daryl and the others weren't back from Atlanta. Shane tried to reassure everyone that they were alright, probably they had wanted to scavenge for supplies too and then they had decided it was best to stay the night holed up somewhere than risking losing the sun. You could only hope he was right.   
  
People began sharing stories about their lives, like all nights, but your mind was elsewhere, Lori words still in your mind.   
  
You had never thought about Daryl like that before. But sure, you had enjoyed the night you had spent together in the woods, talking. You enjoyed his company, yes. And sure he was handsome... Damn, he was hot, you weren't blind, those gorgeous arms and shoulders always on display, not to mention his cat eyes, those cheekbones, and just the whole look he had going on... If he came knocking on your tent some night, you weren't going to say no. But you were pretty sure something like that would never go through Daryl's mind. Though maybe if you could get to spend with him a couple more nights in the woods, alone... Nah, you'd probably have more luck flirting with a walker than with Daryl. The thought almost made you chuckle.  
  
Cole's low growl took you out of your thoughts.   
  
"What?"   
  
He was looking around at the dark but you couldn't see anything. He began barking quietly, getting some of the others attention. You were about to call for Shane and ask him to go check with you if there was something around the perimeter when you heard Amy's screams coming from the RV.   
  
Your heart seemed to stop beating for a moment when you saw her being bitten by walkers, a group of them coming your way.  Panic rushed through the group, everybody screaming. Cole began loudly barking to the walkers.   
  
"Hush! Stay here!" You didn't want him going running to the walkers and ending up devoured.   
  
Shane, Dale, Andrea and everyone with rifles and guns began shooting at the walkers but you only had your knife. They were approaching and you didn't know what to do. You saw some people trying to fight the walkers with bats and shovels so you decided to take Dale’s garden fork and began hitting the walkers with it.

It kept them away from you but it didn’t kill them, you knew it had to be the brain, but your blows didn’t seem to be strong enough. You aimed with the fork and managed to sink its tines into the head of one of the walkers, killing it. Problem was, the monster was now stuck in the fork and more were approaching…you hadn’t thought of that.

You kicked at the walker until you managed to dis-impale it from the fork and began hitting at the closer walkers again, strong enough to put down two with a couple of well-placed blows, ignoring the pain in your arms, but they were too many and they were closing on you. Suddenly you heard some shots and the closest walker to you dropped dead with an arrow in his forehead.

Daryl and to others were back, you could see them running into the camp, shooting at all the walkers. You tried to walk Cole and you away from the line of fire, and soon all the walkers were dead.

It was then when you heard Andrea’s wails and you saw her crying over the dead body of Amy. You couldn’t help your own tears. You couldn’t believe what had happened. You had never seen so many walkers together, they weren’t supposed to reach the camp, and now as you looked around you could see you had lost so many people…

Cole’s bark startled you but he was just greeting Daryl, who patted his head.

“You ain’t bitten or nothing, right?” He asked and it took you a second to realize he was talking to you and not to Cole.

“No, I’m okay.” You said, and Daryl nodded without looking at you.

You looked around but couldn’t see Merle anywhere.

“Daryl…” You were almost too afraid to ask. “Merle?”

Daryl just shook his head and began checking the fallen walkers, sinking his knife in the head the ones he seemed to think might still be alive. You followed him, knowing he was hurting.

“Hey…” You placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, sure.” Daryl scoffed, yanking his arm away. “Leave me alone.”

*

You had thought that you liked Daryl, that maybe you two were friends, but now you were starting to think that maybe you hated him.

He had been insufferable all day, today of all shitty days, yelling at everyone how you all had this coming for what they did to his brother, suggesting to put a bullet in Amy’s head in front of her mourning sister, trying to kill Jim when he found out he had been bitten, and in general being a rude, inconsiderate ass. Maybe Lori had been right.

You had stayed clear from him all day, not in the mood to argue with him, while you helped with the bodies and everything else you needed to. The only good thing about that the day, one of the people who had died was Ed.

Now you were packing your scarce belongings, you were bound to leave for the CDC at first light. That quarry wasn’t safe anymore and you needed answers. Once you were done, you went to have dinner with the others by the fire, but you realized Cole wasn’t around.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, you headed to Daryl’s tent. There he was, dining on the pieces of roasted meet Daryl was passing him.

“Traitor.” You muttered.

“What do you want?” Daryl snapped as soon as he saw you.

“My dog.” You snapped back.

“He was the one to come.” Daryl shrugged, glaring at you. “Not that I called him or anything.”

“Cole, come on.” You called and he looked at you with begging eyes but got up to go with you.

You turned to leave but thought it better and turned to face Daryl again. You had had a hell of a day, all of you had, you were tired, you were scared, you were sad, so on top of everything, why did he have to be like that? He was upset for what happened with Merle, you got it, but still…You had thought you were friends. You were more than a little bit hurt.

“Why do you have to be such an ass?”

“What?” Daryl frowned at you as if he couldn’t believe what you were saying, the prick.

“You’ve been a prick all day, we just lost a lot of people and our home and you’re like it’s nothing, being an ass to everyone, saying rude remarks, saying we had it coming…how dare you?!”

“They had it coming, they left my brother to die!” Daryl got up, getting on your face, but you didn’t back away.

“How can you say something like that!” You couldn’t believe he could be so cruel. “They didn’t mean to leave Merle like that, and even so, nobody deserves this! And none of the people who died had nothing to do with what happened to Merle!”

Daryl said nothing to that, just kept glaring at you.

“Whatever, I don’t know why I try.” You shook your head, stepping back. “I keep telling everyone that you’re not a prick, I let myself think we were friends, but yeah, no, they were right. All you wanted was me to lend you my dog so you wouldn’t have to be alone all the time because you have none besides your prick of a brother, because you too are an asshole who pushes everyone away.” You kept ranting, unable to stop yourself. “But you wouldn’t even admit that you like my dog and his company. Well, you better say goodbye because tomorrow he and I are going to the CDC.”

"I'm going to the CDC too," Daryl said, making you stop.  
  
"Why? You hate us."  
  
"Don't know what else to do."  
  
You said nothing, just walked away.

*

  
Next morning it was one of goodbyes, some people were going to the CDC but others weren't, so you all could only hope that no matter your paths were different you all would be safe.   
  
You were loading your borrowed tent into the RV's trunk when you saw Daryl approaching and you braced yourself for another fight. He stopped before getting too close, though, looking at the ground.   
  
"I don't hate you." He muttered, though you couldn’t really understand what he was saying.

“What?”  
  
"I don't hate you." He repeated, a little bit louder.   
  
"Alright." It was progress, but you couldn't help but be upset at how he had behaved the day before.   
  
"I wouldn't want you to get eaten by a walker or nothing." He said quietly, eyes trained on the ground.  
  
"That's good to know." You were upset still but you guessed he was trying. You supposed it was the closest thing to an apologie for what he had said.  
Cole was already on Daryl, head-bumping him until he patted his head.  
  
"I was thinking..." Daryl began, seeming not very sure of how to phrase whatever he was thinking, his fingers playing with the fur of your dog as if nervous. "Maybe, if you want, maybe you could come in my truck... I mean there's more space for the dog than in the cars."  
  
You were taken aback by his offer. You'd have never imagined that coming from him. Maybe he really was trying to make up from yesterday.  
  
"Dale told me there was space for us in the RV..."  
  
"Alright." Daryl nodded and began to turn away.  
  
"Wait." You called after him, making your decision. "Jim's lying there all delirious."  You were pretty sure he was dying no matter what Rick said. “I think he needs the peace and quiet…so yeah, if you have the space…”

“Okay.”

Daryl nodded, expressionless, still without looking at you.

The drive was awkward, to say the least. At least it was for you, and you were pretty sure that for Daryl too, but there was no doubt Cole was enjoying it, sitting down between Daryl and you, tongue out as he panted excited, looking through the window.

You both had been silent for a long time, since you got into the truck, and you thought you’d be like that for the whole drive, but to your surprise, it was Daryl who broke the silence.

“Merle wasn’t in the roof.” He said, out of the blue.

“I thought Rick had handcuffed him there?” You asked carefully.

“Merle had cut his hand to escape, cauterized the wound, ran away,” Daryl explained to your horror. “Don’t know where he is, or if he was eaten or what.”

“I don’t know what to say…” Considering how they had described the state of Atlanta, it wasn’t looking promising for Merle.

Daryl just hummed saying nothing else.

“Daryl…I’m really sorry.” You did your best to sound genuine. Maybe you hadn’t had the best relationship with Merle, but you knew Daryl must be brokenhearted, and you hated it. “He was your brother...I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well…” Daryl murmured. “I know nobody liked him.”

“He didn’t make himself lovable around camp.” You replied, honestly. “But I’m sorry anyway. And I’m sorry I called you an asshole…I’m sorry I said you had none, too.” You felt bad for having said that to Daryl, especially after losing Merle, no matter you both had been arguing.

“It’s true. I know they don’t like me, nor that I care,” Daryl said quietly as he shrugged. “I know they don’t really want me to go with you all to the CDC.”

“That’s not true…” You knew Daryl wasn’t making himself likable either, though. “You’re a hunter, a tracker, damn skilled at killing the geeks, they want you with us.”

Daryl just scoffed. “They’ll keep me around while I’m useful to them, but I know what they think of me.”

“And do you care about what they think?”

“No.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle at how offended he sounded.

“You say that they don’t like you, but it’s not like you like them either, or at least you don’t act like it…and if you want them not to hate you then maybe you should stop being an ass.”

Daryl fell silent again and you weren’t sure if you had made him angry or not, but you just were trying to be honest with him.

“Anyway…” Since you were being honest, you decided to just keep going. “I don’t know if maybe you don’t agree, but I’d like to think we’re friends. And you’ll always have the undying love of my dog,  that I know for sure. So it’s not true that you have none, you have us.”

Daryl was still silent, but you could see the corner of his mouth curling up in a small smile as he reached out to stroke Cole behind the ears. You both stayed in silence for a little while until once again Daryl broke the silence out of the blue.

“You never talk about your family.”

“Uh?”

“Everyone’s always running their mouths around that campfire, but you never said anything about you.”

“Well, neither do you.”

“I told you about that chupacabras and you laughed in my face,” Daryl grumbled and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

“I told you about my parent’s business.” It was the most you had talked to anyone about your family.

Daryl hummed, looking at you from the corner of his eye.

Before any of you could say anything else, the other vehicles stopped.

“What’s going on?” You asked worriedly as Daryl stopped his truck too.

“Don’t know…come on.”

Jim had gotten worse, way worse, and he seemed to have given up, asking to be abandoned there, knowing he was dying and wouldn’t make it to the CDC without turning.

Jim wasn’t your friend, you had never talked to him that much, but still, having to abandon someone like that…it was hard. You couldn’t say goodbye, just nod to him, swallowing hard, and you made your way back into Daryl’s pickup.

“You okay?” Daryl asked you quietly once he got inside the vehicle too.

“Yeah…” You nodded and gave him a weak smile, you hadn’t expected him to ask and you appreciated it. “You?” He seemed affected too, even though he had tried to kill Jim just the day before. Sometimes Daryl got you thinking that he was quite contradicting.

He nodded in silence, turning the engine on and following the others towards the CDC.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this was long and that a lot of stuff happened, but it’d be too short if I divided it in two, and I wanted to have a full chapter only for the CDC, which is coming next week…I think you’re going to really like that one, so stay tuned!
> 
> By the way, what you thought about Daryl and the Reader’s fight? I understand both of them, but they are both just sucha pair of hotheads! Thankfully they have Cole, who’s sunshine.
> 
> Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked it! If you have a moment, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, your feedback makes my day! I love to speak to all of you when you leave me a comment!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, Daryl and the reader had a fight after he lost Merle in Atlanta. They made up, though, and are now on their way to the CDC.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I loved writing this chapter, so, so much…so I hope you’ll love it too!

The CDC wasn’t what you’d been expecting, though you weren’t sure of what had you been expecting. It was some sort of subterranean lab with only a man in it, who almost let you all be eaten by walkers outside without opening the doors.

That doctor was a strange, somber guy, but he was taking you in, the place seemed secure, with bedrooms and all, and there was plenty of food and drinks. It didn’t take you all long to celebrate your luck while having a big dinner.

You were stuffing yourself with as much food as you think you could handle. One part of you thought you should be saving food, you’ll be needing it, but other part tell you to eat as much as you could cos you never knew when you’d have another chance. Cole was lying down on the floor after having stuffed himself with food too.

“Fat.” You told him fondly.

Everyone was laughing, eating, drinking…it felt strange but the more you drank, the more relaxed you felt, and the more you were enjoying it. Glenn seemed quite drunk and you laughed aloud as Daryl loudly teased him. You looked at Daryl, sat down next to you, and grinned, your stomach doing a funny thing when he grinned back. He had had his fair share of alcohol too, drinking straight from the bottle, didn’t even bother to take a glass.

He could be an asshole but damn, wasn’t he hot. You bit your lip as you checked him out, didn’t even bother trying to hide it. It’d be a damn shame to finally have a real bed and having to spend the night alone.

“Hey, Dixon!” You nudged his leg with your foot under the table. “You’re a damn show off, you know that?”

“What?” He raised an eyebrow at you, flinching his leg away when you rubbed it with your ankle.

“I bet you rip the sleeves of your shirts so you can show off those muscly arms.” You giggled drunkenly. “I’m not complaining though, they’re quite a thing to look at, actually, thank you.” You giggled again.

“You’re drunk, girl.” He stammered, looking at you like if you were crazy.

“Yes, but I know what I’m saying.” You reached out to take the bottle of booze from his hand, slowly brushing your fingers over his. “You got quite the eyes too when you’re not frowning, you know?”

Those blue eyes were now wide as they looked at you as if he didn’t know what had gotten into you. You leaned back in your chair, taking a long sip while you looked at him. He opened his mouth but said nothing, closing it again, seeming dumbfounded. Maybe you had been right thinking that you’d have more luck flirting with a walker than with him.

Before you could say anything else, Shane began questioning the doctor about what had gone on there, and Dr. Jenner’s story about his co-workers going with their families or committing suicide was enough to kill everyone’s mood and people began getting up from the table to go to their rooms or to the showers. You were a bit too drunk to actually register the doctor words, and your mind was occupied with other things.

“Mr. Dixon.” You might as well try your luck. “Walk me to my room.”

“Nah.” Daryl frowned, still looking at you like you were crazy.

“Come on, you said I was drunk, well, I am.” It wasn’t a lie. “So be a gentleman and walk me to my room or else I’ll trip and I’ll knock my head on the floor and I’ll die and it’ll be on you, and my dog will be an orphan and he’ll be soooo sad, he won’t love you no more.” You let out another drunken giggle. “So come on, Dixon.”

“You’re exasperating,” Daryl grumbled, getting up. “You’re gonna be bugging me all the time, right?”

“Yep”

“Come on.”

You got up, hooking your arm with his, ignoring him as he scoffed, and you tried to keep his fast pace as he walked without actually tripping over. Cole padded behind you both, tail wiggling happily.

“There.”

Daryl shook your arm off his when he stopped in front of your door, but you didn’t let go of him, taking hold of his arms and pulling him to you. You ran your hands up his arms, feeling the strong muscles under your palms, stopping on his broad shoulders.

“Have I told you that you’re like really, very, hot?” You said quietly, leaning closer. Daryl swallowed hard, frozen in place, but when you locked your hands behind his neck to try and pull his lips to yours, he shook you off.

“Damn, drunk, silly girl.”

He grumbled and before you knew what was happening he had grabbed you and lifted you off the floor, throwing you over his shoulder.

“What the hell, Daryl!” You yelped. “Okay, never mind, keep going.”

You giggled when he opened the door of the room and strode towards the bed. Damn finally. He dropped you onto the bed unceremoniously and you looked at him expectantly.

Daryl just turned over and walked away.

“Daryl?” You called after him, sitting up on the bed. “Where’re you going?”

“Watch her.” He muttered to Cole before walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

You fell down onto your back with a frustrated groan. Yes, definitely you’d have more luck trying to flirt with a walker.

*

A loud banging on your door woke you up. Why was it so loud. Why did your head hurt that much. You groaned, trying to open your eyes. You were sure you wouldn’t feel worse if you’d been bitten by a walker. You stumbled towards the door, opening it to find Carol.

“Carol..hey…hi…” You greeted, surprising yourself with how hoarse your voice sounded.

“Morning, Y/N.” Carol seemed a bit amused at your state. “I came to tell you we’re having breakfast, if you want to join us.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah, sure, thanks.” Your stomach was doing funny things and you didn’t think you could eat, though. “I think I’m going to have a shower first.”

“Good idea.” Carol chuckled, giving you a warm smile. “Is Daryl there?”

“What, why would he?!”

You didn’t embarrass easily but you felt your cheeks heating up at Carol’s question, memories from the night before coming to your mind. Oh, god, poor Daryl. He barely looked at you in the eye when you talked, flinched when you touched his shoulder, and you had thrown yourself at him. You hoped he wasn’t mad…

“No reason,” Carol smirked. “Well, he’s not in his room, so if you happen to see him tell him we’re having breakfast.”

“Okay…”

On your way to the shower you crossed paths with Glenn, his hair wet, seeming to have had your same idea and seeming to be as hungover as you.

“You should go back in there, you still look shitty.” You teased.

“Yeah, don’t get scared when you see yourself on the mirror.” He teased back. “At least I wasn’t all over Daryl last night.”

“You noticed?”

“Who didn’t? You weren’t discrete.” Glenn chuckled

“God, no.” You groaned, hiding your face on your hands. As if you couldn’t get more mortified… Daryl was bound to be pissed.

“At least you had fun last night, all I did was puke.” Glenn grimaced. “Saw Daryl walking you to your room.”

“Pff…to get my drunken ass into bed.”

“Wasn’t that the point?”

“No, I mean…he made sure I was on bed, then he left.” You let out a sigh. “I hope I didn’t scare him…I should apologize when I see him.”

“Good luck with that.”

Once you were feeling almost awake, you joined the others for breakfast. Nobody was as chatty as last night, you could feel some tension but you didn’t know what was going on and honestly, you didn’t want to know.

Daryl looked at you as you walked in and quickly avoided your eyes, looking anywhere but to you. Cole ran to him as soon as he spotted him and Daryl seemed glad for the distraction.

You didn’t know if Daryl was mad or not, but he was obviously embarrassed. You ought to apologize. But honestly, as you sat down on the table, you could barely look at him either.

You didn’t have time to apologize after breakfast, since the doctor decided to finally tell you what was going on. You wished he hadn’t. So apparently the whole world had gone to shit, those monsters were everywhere, and there was no cure, no place standing. Great. Just great. What were you supposed to do now?

Daryl walked away, bottle of booze in hand, saying he was going to get drunk again. Probably not a bad idea, considering the news you had just gotten.

You weren’t sure what to do. Rick and some of the others had gone to the basement to check the generators, after the doctor said something you didn’t understand about them shutting down at some point. The others were silent or talking quietly with each other, despairing and depressed after the news Jenner had broke.

You’d rather be drinking with Daryl but you weren’t sure if he would want you to join him. You weren’t sure if he was mad or not, but he had done everything not to look at you during breakfast. Another look around at the somber mood and at the strange doctor and you decided you’d try your luck with Daryl and also apologize.

You thought he might have gone to his room and you took a deep breath before knocking on it.

“Go away!”

It wasn’t the best start.

“It’s Y/N…”

You weren’t sure if it was going to make it better or worse, but he opened the door.

“What?”

“I was wondering if I could join you for a drink?” You asked and Daryl looked at you warily. “I’m not going to get drunk and jump on you, I promise.” You blushed as you spoke and noticed Daryl’s cheeks getting red too. Great, you were making everything more awkward. “Just…after what that doctor said…don’t know what to do with myself…” You shrugged helplessly, not sure of how to explain it.

Daryl said nothing but nodded at you to walk in, and Cole almost ran you over as he rushed inside. You walked inside and leaned against a wall awkwardly, looking at Daryl, who was silent as he petted your dog.

“What do you think of what that doctor said?” You asked and Daryl just shrugged. You didn’t seem to be making much progress. “I just…I wasn’t expecting a cure just…I don’t know. I thought someone, somewhere, was working on solving this, that it’d be temporal…but everything is gone…” It was worse than what any of you had thought. “There’s no safe place anywhere.”

“We have this place.” Daryl finally spoke but he still didn’t look at you.

“I don’t know…that man gives me the creeps.”

Daryl nodded, humming.

“Mind sharing?” You reached out your hand so he’d pass you the bottle, hoping it’d make him look at you.

It did, but only for a second, as he took a couple of steps closer and passed you the bottle, dropping his gaze down again. You took a deep breath.

“Daryl, I have to apologize for last night.” You told him before he could walk away again. “I’m sorry, I truly am, I was drunk. I’m sorry I was…well…like that.” You felt your cheeks blushing again. “I didn’t mean to be like that, sorry.”

“It’s okay…” He muttered, fidgeting. “You were drunk, I know you didn’t mean it.”

“You are not mad?” You asked cautiously.

“Nah.” He shook his head.

“Okay…okay, thanks.” You smiled, relieved.

He shrugged again, giving you what you almost could call half a smile. Even though you were happy he wasn’t mad and that he didn’t seem to think you were a creep, his words about knowing you didn’t mean it rubbed you the wrong way. You had meant what you had said, you just hadn’t meant to act like that, pushing his boundaries as you had done.

“You do have pretty eyes, though.” You said softly, tentatively, hoping it wouldn’t make him flip.

“Stop it.” He scoffed, rolling said blue eyes.

“Okay. Sorry.”

Daryl opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it and began chewing on his lower lip. He was looking at you, longer than he had ever done, his intense eyes unreadable to you. You couldn’t help but look at the lip he kept nibbling. You bit your own lip and reached down to leave the bottle of alcohol on the floor next to you before locking eyes with him.

“Daryl…” You whispered. “The world has gone to shit, everything’s dead around us, there’s no solution, there’s nothing we can do, nowhere to go, and I really, really want to kiss you.”

He said nothing but didn’t pull away from you and so you leaned closer but waited for him to make the move. He didn’t. You heard him swallowing hard and you were about to pull back, afraid you had made him too uncomfortable and he didn’t know what to do, when he crashed his lips against yours.

You gasped in surprise but quickly kissed him back, tasting the bitterness of the alcohol in his lips and holding onto his arms.

You were surprised by the strength of his kisses but you kissed him back with the same hunger. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and moaned into the kiss when he walked you to the wall, pressing you against it.

You tried to wrap a leg around his and Daryl seemed to catch on what you wanted, hooking his arms under your thighs and lifting you off the ground. You wrapped your legs around his waist, letting out a breathless laugh against his lips when he pushed you harder against the wall.

You moaned again, lost in the kiss, one of your hands shifting up to caress his cheek, when suddenly he pulled his lips off you and dropped you, pulling himself away from you.

“No.” He grunted.

You looked at him with wide, confused eyes, breathing hard. He was panting too, his face flushed, looking at the floor.

“Daryl? What’s wrong?”

He just shook his head and when you tried to reach out for him he flinched away. You were confused. Maybe he didn’t want you? But then why had he kissed you back? Maybe you had pushed him too much…but still…that kiss… You didn’t know what to think.

“I’m sorry.” You said, not knowing what else to do and before any of you could say anything else, the lights went out.

“What’s going on?” You asked Daryl, trying not to freak out.

“Dunno…”

You heard him moving and then tripping over something and cursing, followed by a whimper from Cole.

“Shit, sorry dog, you’re in the middle.”

You followed Daryl’s voice and clung to his arm when you found him, hoping he wouldn’t push you away. He didn’t, walking you both to the door and opening it to find the others in the corridor, their rooms dark too.

You all followed doctor Jenner, demanding explanations that he ignored until an alarm began blasting and he finally explained what was going on. The lab had shut itself down and was about to explode with all of you inside.

You didn’t think you had ever been as scared as you were in that moment, seeing the clock counting down, knowing that the lab you were in was going to explode, while that damn doctor Jenner was acting like it was for the best, deaf to all your pleas.

Everyone seemed to share your panic. Some were crying while others tried to break the doors with axes and everything they could get. Rick was trying to reason with Jenner without any success. Your dog seemed to feel the panic and he ran behind you, nervous, barking from time to time.

“It’s not working.” You said in panic to Daryl and Shane, the door not giving up.

“These doors are made to stand a rocket launcher.” The doctor commented and you flipped him off.

“Your head ain’t!”

Daryl raised the ax he was wielding, running to the doctor, but before he could reach him Rick grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Get off!”

Daryl shook Rick off and tried to throw himself to the doctor again, but you stopped in front of him.

“Daryl, wait.” He tried to push you to the side but you grabbed his wrists. “If you kill him then he won’t open the doors. Give me that.”

You took the ax from Daryl’s hands and turned to Dr. Jenner.

“Open the door or I start cutting pieces of you until you open it.” You threatened but the man didn’t even flinch. “Okay, I start with your feet!”

“What the…Y/N!” Rick forcefully took the ax from you. “That’s not the way!”

“Whatever, keep begging him, he’s not even listening.” You snapped, trying not to cry of frustration and fear.

You went back to trying to open the door with Daryl even though you were pretty sure it was useless, but you had to do something. You couldn’t help your tears and you rubbed them furiously before you started kicking the door in frustration.

“Y/N.” Daryl stopped you, grabbing your arms and pulling you away from the door. “You’re not gonna open it like that, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”

“What do we do then?” You whimpered, hating that you couldn’t stop crying. “Nothing?”

“Dunno…” Daryl seemed as lost as you.

It seemed Shane couldn’t take it anymore either, he began shooting at the computers and then threatening Jenner with his shotgun, only to be stopped by Rick. Neither that had the doctor change his mind and you dropped to the floor, pulling Cole to you and burying your face into his fur, waiting for the end.

Somehow, when you were sure you all were lost, Jenner finally seemed to listen to one of Rick’s pleas, opening the doors.

“Come on, come on!”

Daryl pulled you onto your feet and you ran down the corridor, Cole at your heels, until you reached the reception of the building, stopping when you noticed some of the others weren’t coming.

“What’s going on?”

“Jacquie, Dale and Andrea don’t want to come,” Glenn told you, seeming about to cry.

“What?!” You couldn’t believe it.

“Shit!” Daryl cursed. “This is closed too!”

You ran to him as he began hitting the main door with the ax but it wasn’t breaking. You couldn’t believe that after thinking you were going to make it, you were still trapped inside.

Shane aimed at the glass windows with his shotgun but that didn’t break it either, and you were once again sure that this was your end, but then Carol passed Rick a grenade she had found in his clothing and that finally, finally, broke the window.

You all ran outside only to find yourself face to face with a group of walkers. Some began firing at them but you had to keep going or the explosion would kill you.

“Come on, we have to get to the cars, come on!” Someone yelled, you weren’t sure who, you could barely hear anything over the pounding of your scared heart in your ears.

“Y/N, get the dog, don’t let him get separated!”

Daryl told you and you grabbed Cole’s collar, keeping him with you while he barked like crazy. Daryl kept you behind him as he hit the walkers blocking the way with the ax. You wanted to do something but you couldn’t take your knife and keep holding Cole at the same time, and you were afraid the walkers would get him if you didn’t keep him close.

“Come on!”

Daryl grabbed your arm once there weren’t walkers too close and you three ran to his truck, rushing inside. You held onto your dog, closing your eyes and trying to shield him, and you felt Daryl’s body over yours doing the same.

No matter you had been waiting for it, the explosion was so loud it took your breath away as your heart did a somersault, it made the cars shake but you were far enough to be safe.

“You okay?” Daryl pulled away from you, moving to the other side of the seat as he looked at you with worried eyes.

“Yeah…thanks…” Your heart was still beating like crazy. “You?”

Daryl nodded and looked through the window.

“Look!”

Dale and Andrea were rushing into the RV, somehow.

“They’re fine!” You smiled to Daryl, barely believing it. They have made it!

“We have to leave, that sound and the fire are bringing every walker around here.” Daryl turned on the engine to drive away.

“What are we going to do now?” You felt lost again. The CDC had been your best shot and look at how it had turned out. What were you supposed to do know?

“I don’t know…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…that happened!! Did you expect them to kiss so soon on a fic of mine? Did you liked it? Or maybe it wasn’t really your thing?
> 
> At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I loved writing it a lot!! I had such a good time! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you!
> 
> Something tells me we’re getting Daryl’s pov soon…*wink* More comming next wednesday!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, everyone arrived at the CDC, things got heated between the reader and Daryl which came to an abrupt end, and everyone almost blowed up in there before managing to escape, and are on the road now…

Daryl and you stayed silent for a while as he drove without knowing where you were going, your mind full of troubled thoughts. You were starting to slowly feel better but you still hadn’t stopped shaking. You stole glances at Daryl while he drove. You hadn’t talked about what had happened between you in the CDC, hadn’t had the time. You were still confused, but you weren’t sure if you wanted to bring it up.

And after almost losing your lives, it didn’t seem that important anymore.

Still, you couldn’t figure out why Daryl had kissed you only to pull back like that. You felt bad thinking maybe you had pushed him until you made him kiss you, but if he hadn’t wanted to, why did he kiss you back? And in such a way…you felt yourself blush at the memory.

Maybe he had kissed you because at that moment he was feeling down, you couldn’t blame him, after what Jenner had told you, but once he had come back to his senses he had realized he didn’t want it.

Or maybe he thought you’d wanted more than what he did, more than just kisses and helping each other forget the shit world in which you lived for a while. Which…did you? Did you want more? You had never thought it. He was hot, you’d sleep with him no doubt, but something else? Nah…You didn’t think so. Though you had been enjoying his company more and more, and he had had your back…He was a nicer guy than he let out. You just didn’t like him that way, did you? Well, not quite but…no, ending that train of thoughts now. It was silly and good for nothing.

“What?”

Daryl’s voice took you out of your thoughts and you realized he had caught you staring at him.

“Nothing…”

You should stop those silly fantasies, you had only managed to embarrass him, and you hoped you hadn’t pushed him away from you. You did enjoy his company and friendship.

“Actually…I was wondering if we are okay?”

“What you mean?” Daryl looked at you for a second before training his eyes on the road again, frowning in confusion.

“I mean…I mean that in the CDC…what we…what I…” You hated how babbly you were sounding, you usually weren’t like that, but you didn’t know how to word it. Considering how Daryl was, you didn’t want to say the wrong thing and make everything even worse. “Just…I just mean, we’re still friends, right?”

It wasn’t exactly what you’d meant, but still, it was important.

“Yeah.” Daryl nodded without looking at you.

“Okay…okay, good…”

You were still unsure, though, but when Daryl glanced at you briefly with a tiny half smile, you felt better. So he did consider you his friend after all. After a while of diving, the cars finally stopped. Time to discuss what to do now. Before you could open the door, Daryl stopped you.

“You only have that knife?”

“Yes.” You wondered if Shane or Rick would maybe lend you one of that rifles and shotguns they had gotten, though you weren’t sure you actually knew how to use them.

“Here.”

You were surprised when Daryl passed you his gun.

“No, you need it too.” You said as you took it reluctantly.

“It’s fine, I have another.” Daryl opened one of the compartments of the car and took out another gun. You wondered if it had been Merle’s. “And I have the crossbow.”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Daryl said nothing, opening the door and jumping out of the truck.

Rick was the one making most of the talk, backed by Shane. None was feeling especially hopeful or talkative. After the CDC, now the idea was to try your luck in Fort Benning, hoping it was still standing. There was just about an hour of light left so it was decided you’d spend the night there in your cars, you were far enough from the city.

While Daryl, Shane, and Rick checked the perimeter, making sure there weren’t walkers around, you studied a map with Glenn, trying to spot all the roads that could get you to Fort Benning in case the main roads were blocked.

You had the feeling the drive was going to be a long one.

*

Once his shift was finished, Shane taking his place, Daryl headed to his truck. He had planned on keeping watch all the night, he wasn’t sure they weren’t going to be surprised by a group of geeks staying there, in the middle of nowhere, but damn, he was more tired than he had realized.

He opened the door to find Y/N finally asleep, curled up with the dog, taking most of the seat. He tried to get in without bothering her, squeezing himself against the door. This was ridiculous. He should wake her or try to push her to her side, but he knew if she woke up she would probably not be able to fall back asleep, she had tried for a while, Daryl knew she was more scared than she wanted to let out.

What did he care anyway.

But he did. He cared and it was making him feel like an idiot. It wasn’t just that he liked her dog, not anymore anyway. She was her friend, she had said so. Daryl wasn’t used to something like that, having friends, having someone besides his brother.

He didn’t know when she had decided he was her friend. Neither did he know when he had decided she was his friend. It just kind of happened. He had found her in the woods, took her to the camp and for some reason since then he’d kept an eye on her to make sure both her and the dog were fed and were doing okay.

Thinking back, it was probably the dog’s fault. He had been the first one to decide he wanted to be his friend, that first night, when he came to his tent and looked at him until Daryl gave him dinner. He had been following him everywhere, and none had ever been happier to see him that that dog. It might be silly, but Daryl liked it.

He had decided then that he’d take him hunting with him, hoping that maybe the dog would tell him if there were walkers around so he wouldn’t have to be on alert all the time, or maybe find trails. Turned out the dog had been pretty useless at that, but Daryl liked the company. He’d never admit it, though, he knew it was silly, Merle had been laughing at him as if he knew.

At first, Y/N hadn’t wanted to lend him her dog and he couldn’t blame her. Why would she trust him. Then, she had done it but only if Daryl took her with him too, and she hadn’t let him say no. That girl was just so damn stubborn. He had been so annoyed at her, but it went better than he had expected. She’d claimed to work in the woods and he had called her bluff, but in truth he could see she wasn’t bad at moving in the woods. It had him wondering what kind of business was that she had been working on, but he didn’t ask.

Since then, she had begun spending more time around him, Daryl wasn’t sure why. Maybe she felt alone, she didn’t seem to have nobody else and didn’t seem to be making many friends even though she was friendly and talked with everyone, seeming to get along nicely with them. Yet she chose to spend time sitting down next to him in either just silence or talking, she didn’t seem to mind most times he didn’t have much to say back to her.

Daryl noticed how she never talked about her family, and he never asked. He’d caught her staring at him sometimes while he got his kills ready, it’d made him uncomfortable but he hadn’t said anything. When one day she joined him, taking one of his rabbits and starting to clean it while she talked to him, Daryl realized she had been watching him, trying to learn.

It was confusing, why she would like to spend time with him and talk to him, but Daryl had found that he liked it, enjoyed the company and her telling him about random things, not seeming to care when he didn’t say anything back.

He had tried not to like her company, knowing he was better off alone with his brother, but he did, to the point of even asking her to go on a hunting trip with him. He had been debating about asking her or not for the longest time, he didn’t even make his mind until the moment he asked her.

Maybe that had been the moment when Daryl had realized they were friends. Y/N had been obviously enjoying the trip, walking as if there weren’t any worry in the world, picking up plants as she went, murmuring things to herself, seeming careless as if they didn’t live in a world full of deadly threats. Or as if maybe Y/N trusted him to keep her safe. It was ridiculous, though, and Daryl didn’t allow himself to think that. The idea gave him a strange, warm feeling, that made him uncomfortable.

When Daryl thought back to that night they had spent together in the woods, he was taken aback by how comfortable he had been with her, how much he had enjoyed it as she told him stories about the stars.

She had told him about her family business too, it’d been the first time he heard her talking about her past, after Daryl dared to ask her, still curious about how used she was to the woods. So she had indeed, worked in the woods, sort of. And she could use a bow, though hers seemed to be missing. Daryl had found himself thinking about joining Glenn next time the kid went to scavenge to Atlanta so maybe he could find her a bow.

He had also caught himself talking about his past too, that time he got lost in the woods but made his way back home. Y/N had looked at him as if impressed and then as if she were truly sorry he hadn’t had anyone, as if she really cared. She had insisted on keeping watch so he could sleep, and Daryl had surprised himself actually falling asleep without any problem. When next morning he had woken up wrapped in the blanket she had placed over him while he slept, a feeling he wasn’t used to had spread through him.

That night had made Daryl wonder if maybe she actually, really cared about him…it made him wonder if maybe he did care about her too. It made him realize how much he wanted to have her around and keep her safe, and it was scary.

He had tried to keep his walls up with that girl but it had been proving to be difficult, and he had just been lowering them more and more. He had found himself caring about what Y/N thought about him, not wanting to push her away from him, wanting to talk more to her, to get to know her better, wanting to be close to her so he could make sure she was okay and safe, wanting to keep enjoying her company but also calling himself an idiot for feeling like that.

Daryl remembered when Y/N had said they were friends, in that same truck while they drove to the CDC, she had said Daryl wasn’t alone, that he had her and the dog. It had made Daryl’s stomach do strange things that had scared him but it had also made him feel warm in a too pleasant way. He had been feeling lost and out of place, more alone than ever, without Merle, but having Y/N and the dog around, having her talk to him like she cared, saying they were friends…it made it better.

The CDC…Daryl felt himself blush, flustered, at the memories.

He didn’t give any credit to the things Y/N had said that night, knowing she was drunk. He’d had fun at first during that dinner, he even thought he was starting to like those people, yes, he was enjoying it, until Y/N had begun teasing him in front of everyone.

He hadn’t known what to do, how to react, confused by her sudden behavior. Her words, her touches, had made him utterly uncomfortable but at the same time, he had been scared to realize that maybe he wanted it, something lighting in his belly.

He had to remind himself that Y/N was drunk and that was why she was saying all those things, but they weren’t true. He had almost taken advantage of it when she’d tried to kiss him, and maybe if he hadn’t been so confused by her and paralyzed by fear, he’d have let her pull his lips to hers and do whatever she wanted to with him. But it was the alcohol talking, not her, and so he had made sure she was safe in bed and stormed away.

That night he hadn’t been able to sleep, too worked up as he replayed her words, her touch, how it had affected him. He was angry at himself for almost believing it when he knew she didn’t mean it. He kicked himself for how he had reacted, paralyzed by her touch, not even walkers got him freezing like that. He hated how, despite how uncomfortable he had felt at first, her flirtatious words and her hands brushing up his arms and neck had made his heart go crazy to the point he barely could stop himself from allowing her to kiss him. But nothing had been real.

Daryl wanted to hate her too, for making him feel like that, for saying those things that weren’t true.

But next morning, when she had come for breakfast, looking like she had the worst hangover in the world and trying to look anywhere but at him as she blushed, he realized he couldn’t hate her. It hadn’t been her fault, she was drunk, and she was obviously embarrassed about it. He couldn’t look at her, either.

It had made him wonder if that meant she wasn’t his friend anymore, and he’d kicked himself for how upset the idea made him feel.

She didn’t seem to want to stop being his friend, though, she had gone to apologize, saying she hadn’t meant it. Of course she hadn’t, she had been drunk, Daryl had known her words hadn’t been true. She didn’t want him like that.

Still, he hadn’t been able to stop himself that second time, when she looked at him with those sad, scared eyes after what the doc had told them, when she dropped her gaze to his lips saying she wanted to kiss him…it had been too much. He hadn’t cared it wasn’t real, that she didn’t mean it, that she was just scared and lost, he wanted to kiss her too, he was scared and lost too. As soon as his lips touched hers he had surprised even himself with how much he wanted her, his hunger of her growing with each kiss, the shitty word around them forgotten as she clung to him.

Daryl didn’t know how he had come back to his senses and pulled away from her. Neither did he know if maybe he shouldn’t have stopped. Fear and rejection had crept into his brain, though, reminding him that she was only doing it because she was scared, that she really didn’t want him. She would regret it. He was only something to pass the time, to keep around while he was useful, to help her stay safe and forget the horrors of the world, nothing more.

Part of him had said that it didn’t matter, that he wanted to forget too, that he wanted her too. May as well enjoy it while it lasted. But when she’d get tired of him or find something better, she would leave him. Or soon she’d regret it and maybe she wouldn’t be his friend anymore. And Daryl’d be alone, without his brother and without his friend, and without the dog. He didn’t know why he cared, he was good alone, but he cared. He wanted her to still be his friend, he wanted her around, and it made him feel stupid and it scared him, but he couldn’t help it.

So he had pulled away. He had tried to make sense of all it, of what he was thinking and feeling, of the way in which he had reacted. Tried to make sense of the way Y/N made him feel. Tried to decide if it was worth risking losing her friendship and being discarded later just so he could kiss her again and lost himself in her. Tried to get himself to hate her for making him feel like that, for giving him all those confusing feelings that he didn’t want or knew what to do with.

He didn’t need people. He didn’t need friends. He was good alone, better. Yet he couldn’t stop himself from wanting that girl and her dog around. Couldn’t get himself to push her away from him.

Then the lights had gone out and the clock marking their death had begun counting down, and there hadn’t been more time to think about such things, all Daryl had wanted was to get the hell out of there and keep Y/N and her dog safe.

Looking at her asleep, curled up on the car seat, Daryl felt his stomach doing that weird thing that it did sometimes when he looked at her. He hated it. It scared him, made him uncomfortable. But he couldn’t stop it.

“Hey.” Y/N opened her eyes, looking at him drowsily, catching him staring, and Daryl looked away, blushing. “Sorry, I’m taking over all the seat.”

Y/N shifted so he’d have more space and Daryl allowed himself to get more comfortable, propping his feet up in the dashboard and making sure to leave space between Y/N and him.

Y/N had been squeezing the dog as she curled up with him, but when she released him as she moved to change her position, the dog shifted until he managed to lie both over Y/N and Daryl, and Daryl couldn’t help a smile as he looked at him, running his fingers through his fur.

“I’m sorry, we’re taking all over your truck.” She looked at him with sleepy eyes as she propped herself up to sat against the door.

“Nah, it’s fine.” Daryl murmured.

“Who’s on watch now?”

“Shane.” Daryl knew that after what happened in the quarry, Y/N was scared a group of walkers would sneak on them again, though they hoped if that was the case, then the cars would protect them. “Didn’t see any walkers around, we should be fine. Sleep.”

“Okay.” Y/N gave him a lazy smile. “You too.”

Y/N closed her eyes and Daryl did the same, though no matter how tired he was, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to sleep. He knew he had to, after barely having slept the previous days, or else he wouldn’t be of any use. But with everything he had in his mind, he wasn’t sure he could.

“Daryl…”

Y/N’s voice made him open his eyes again, but her eyes were closed, her face half hidden by the messy hair that fell over it.

“Thank you for letting me and Cole stay here.”

“It’s nothing…” It wasn’t like there was much space in the other vehicles, they were thankful they had the RV.

“It’s not nothing, I’m kind of able to sleep because you’re around and you have our backs.” Y/N whispered, making Daryl’s heart speed up. “Thanks for being our friend.”

Daryl said nothing to that but couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips. Maybe having a friend, maybe all those silly feelings he had sometimes when he looked at her, were worth after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much happened in this chapter, but we got a peak into Daryl’s mind, which I really wanted to do. What did you think? It’s what you were expecting? It’s hard to get Daryl right. Your feedback would make me really happy.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, we got into Daryl’s mind, see what he thinkgs of what’s going on until now. Everyone had to rush out of the CDC and are now in the middle of nowhere, on the go to Fort Benning…

You joisted awake, waking Cole too as your sudden movement startled him, and kicking Daryl. You had been taking too much space again, making him squeeze himself against the other door.

“Shit, sorry.” You apologized, propping yourself up with your back against the door, hugging your knees to your chest.

“It’s fine.”

Daryl sounded tired, though, and you felt guilty noticing the dark circles under his eyes. It didn’t seem he had had much sleep, and you wondered if he had slept at all. Maybe you should have tried to find a spot for Cole and you in the RV so Daryl could have had more space to sleep, but you had felt safer in his truck, with him.

“A nightmare?”

You nodded, embarrassed.

“It’s okay. I got them too.” Daryl said quietly and you looked at him, curious.

“About what?”

“Stuff…” He replied evasively.

“I dreamt we still were at the CDC, and we didn’t make it out in time…” You began explaining, you could still hear the explosion… “God, I’ve never been as scared as I was when Jenner told us the building was going to explode and we couldn’t get out.” Just thinking about it was making you feel a lump in your throat again. “Not even when the walkers attacked our camp. I know a walker can kill us at any moment but…I don’t know…this felt different…knowing that I was about to die and couldn’t do anything about it…god, I was terrified…” You shuddered.

“There was this time when I…urm…” Daryl trailed off as if he weren’t sure of how to say what he wanted to. “Someone got a gun to my head, I thought I was about to die.”

“Shit…”

“Yeah…I’d never been more scared than then.” You were surprised he was admitting something like that to you, he was always trying to show he was fearless. “Don’t know if I was more scared back then or yesterday.”

“How did you end up like that?” You couldn’t stop yourself from asking. “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me.”

“He was Merle’s dealer, they got into a fight, I jumped in, hit him as hard as I could until he put the gun to my head.”

You didn’t know what to say to that. “Well, I’m glad he didn’t shoot.” Was the only thing you could come up with and Daryl snorted.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Sounds like your brother got you into all kind of trouble…”

“Yeah, sometimes…But I was able to get into trouble all by myself too.”

“Yeah, I bet.” You laughed softly and Daryl chuckled too, but you thought he looked sad. Probably he was thinking about his brother. “You didn’t find his body or anything…maybe he’s still around, somewhere…”

“Maybe…” Daryl didn’t sound very hopeful and considering what they had told you about Atlanta, he had his reasons. “Your family, maybe-”

“They’re dead.” You cut him off and you both fell silent again.

“You were really gonna cut that guy into pieces?” Daryl asked you out of the blue.

“What?”

“The doc. You said you’d cut pieces of him until he opened the door.”

“Oh…” You had almost forgotten it.

“Were you going to do it…or it was a bluff?”

“I was going to do it.” You replied, though you weren’t sure.

“Nah…nah, you wouldn’t. You’re bluffing, like always.”

“Honestly, I don’t know…” You let out a sigh. “But at that moment…I think I might, I didn’t know how to make him open the door, and I was so scared…maybe I might have done it…” Were you a bad person? You were just trying to survive.

Daryl just hummed.

“Would you have killed him?” You asked back.

“Yeah.”

You couldn’t tell if it was a bluff or not. You bit your lip, unsure about saying aloud what you were about to ask.

“Have you ever killed someone?”

“You think I have?” Daryl glanced at you but you weren’t sure if he was angry at your question or not.

“No…but…dunno, you tried to kill the doctor, and Jim…” And you weren’t sure he wouldn’t have killed Rick when he had been so worked up about him having left Merle in Atlanta.

“Have you ever cut someone into pieces?” He asked sarcastically.

“You think I have?” You copied his question and he snorted.

“Nah.”

“I haven’t…I stabbed someone once, though.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep. With my pocket knife…on the hand.” You laughed quietly and Daryl joined you.

“What happened?”

“There was this guy I was walking around the bed & breakfast, showing him around…long story short, he was a creep, grabbed my ass, I stabbed his hand.”

“Good.”

Rick had been patrolling around the cars and you saw him making his way to the truck when he noticed Daryl and you were awake, so you opened your door to speak with him and Cole jumped out.

“Morning.” Rick greeted. “We’re leaving soon.”

“Okay.”

“Glenn thinks the main road to Fort Benning is going to be blocked but it’s the quickest way to get there.” Rick looked through the map Glenn and you had been studying the night before. “What do you think?”

“That both of you are right…dunno…” You weren’t an expert in roads like Glenn, you’d never gone to any run. “Maybe we could try the main and if it’s blocked we take this one?” You frowned as you pointed it in the map. “I don’t know, ask Glenn.”

“He’s still asleep, somehow.” Rick smiled even though he seemed stressed. “We also need to find food, we don’t have that much left, and water.”

“I’m going hunting,” Daryl announced, taking his crossbow and jumping out of the truck.

“Okay, don’t take long, we have to get going.”

Daryl nodded in silence, whistling at Cole so he’d go with him. “Y/N, you coming?” He called for you over his shoulder, surprising you.

“Sure!”

*

“What you doing picking flowers?”

Daryl frowned at you as you picked up some dandelions, carefully wrapping them in a rag.

“I’ll let you know that they’re edible…granted, it’s not like your squirrels.” You pointed at the couple of them that Daryl carried attached to his belt. “But they have quite a lot of vitamins, actually.”

“Sure.” Daryl cocked an eyebrow at you but said nothing else. “We should be getting back, there’s a long drive to Fort Benning. These squirrels will have to be enough.”

“We’ll make them last.”

You knew he’d have liked to hunt more, feeling like it wasn’t enough, but it was always thanks to him that you could eat something that wasn’t canned. You placed a reassuring hand on his arm and Daryl seemed startled by the touch but he didn’t flinch away.

“Not that they’ll be hungry after eating your flowers, though.” Daryl joked, smirking, and you nudged him with your shoulder.

“No dandelion salad for you, Dixon.”

“Look.”

Daryl pointed at a squirrel on a tree when you were close to the road. You waited for him to shoot at it, but he looked back and forth from you and the squirrel.

“Try.” He passed you the crossbow and you took it reluctantly.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, come on.”

You aimed, noticing once again how different it was from aiming with your bow. Your bow was a traditional one, no scope or anything, Daryl’s crossbow should have been easier, but still, you didn’t get used to it, the posture, the feeling, everything was different.

Your breath hitched when Daryl placed a tentative hand on your arm, repositioning your elbow while his other hand lifted the crossbow in place, and you were surprised at the rush of electricity that went through your body at his soft touch. Weird. You focused your attention back to the crossbow and the squirrel, and pressed the trigger.

You missed the target by little, the squirrel running away.

“Sorry.”

“It was better,” Daryl said, taking back his crossbow, and you couldn’t help your smile at his words.

Back to the cars, everyone was awake and they seemed to have been making plans. The idea was to leave most of the cars, taking only Carol’s Cherokee and Dale’s RV, so as to save gas, since you didn’t know where you could find more and how long it’d take you to reach your destination if you had to take detours.

Daryl wasn’t happy about leaving his truck, it took a bit of him going angrily back and forth with Rick and Shane until he agreed but in truth the truck didn’t have that much gas left and he had his brother’s bike full.

“I can’t take the dog on the bike.” Daryl frowned as he looked at Cole and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

“He’ll forgive you.” You patted your dog’s head, both Cole and you would be going in the RV now. “But you have to give me a ride sometime.”

*  
As suspected, main roads were blocked by abandoned cars, making the journey to Fort Benning longer then it should.

On top of everything, the RV broke down.

While Dale worked on fixing it, you all scavenged through the cars for supplies. You made sure to be close to Daryl, in case there were walkers inside the cars, but all the people seemed dead for real. You were a little apprehensive of the corpses as you rummaged through the cars but you tried not to show it.

“This is sweet…" 

You held a box of band-aids for kids, with tiny pictures of dinosaurs on them. You were saddened at the thought of the kid for whom they might have been. Daryl raised an eyebrow and you thought he was going to do some remark about your find, but he seemed to notice where your train of thoughts had gone, and he said nothing. There was some more kid’s stuff in that car and you decided you had had enough, you weren’t going to go through more of those things.

Daryl had picked up a tennis ball and Cole was waggling its tail excitedly, eyes fixed on the ball, and when Daryl threw it he ran to catch it as fast as he could, coming back with the ball in his mouth and dropping it on Daryl’s hand so he’d throw it again. Daryl threw it further this time and Cole barked excitedly, running behind the ball. You couldn’t help your smile.

“He always liked to play.” You told Daryl when Cole came back again with the ball. “Whenever families with kids came to the bed & breakfast the kids would gush over him, playing all day, he was a spoiled dog.”

“Sounds like a good life,” Daryl said, pretending he was going to throw the ball again without doing it, having Cole look around in confusion as if wondering where the ball had gone, and you snorted. He was a good dog, smart, but sometimes he could be a bit silly.

You both kept going through cars, trying to find something useful, throwing the ball to Cole from time to time. You spot a box with cans of food in the backseat of a car, but the doors were closed so Daryl began trying to pick them with his knife. You turned around to throw the ball to Cole when you spotted a big group of walkers close, the others already running and trying to hide. How none of you had noticed it before?!

“Daryl!”

Daryl turned around at the panic in your voice, his eyes widening at the sight of the walkers approaching before he turned back and opened the door, having managed to pick the lock.

“Get in there.” He pushed you inside of the car. “Quiet!” He pushed Cole in with you too and you tried to squeeze you both on the floor between the back and front seats. Before you knew what was happening, Daryl had thrown a corpse over the back seat and another over Cole and you, and had slammed the door close. The stench of the body turned your stomach, his dead face looking at you, and you tried not to panic.

“Daryl?” You called for him quietly but there was no reply, you couldn’t see anything with the dead body over Cole and you, but now you could hear the groans of the walkers close. You closed your eyes, praying the walkers wouldn’t find you.

Only a few minutes passed but for you, they felt like hours. You didn’t know if the walkers were still there or if they had gone away, or if maybe they weren’t going to leave the place and you’d be stuck in that car forever or until they found you. You didn’t know if the others had managed to hide or if the walkers had gotten them. You didn’t know where Daryl had gone, if he was alright or not. You felt like crying and you bit your lip to stop you from whimpering aloud.

When you heard the door opening you gasped, wondering if walkers could do that, but then the corpse was pulled off you and you saw it was Daryl. Cole barked to greet him, shaking off your grasp and jumping out of the car. As soon as you crawled out of the car you threw your arms around Daryl, pulling him close into a hug, still shaking in fear.

“Come on.” He pushed you off him carefully. You noticed T-Dog lying against the car, sweat covering his face, clutching his arm. He had a red rag wrapped around it but it was bleeding profusely.

“Is he bitten?” You asked Daryl, panicking again.

“No, I think he cut himself.”

You rushed back to the RV where the first aid kit was, wondering where everyone was. You saw them at the side of the road, looking at the woods.

“What’s going on?” You asked while you sat down T-Dog on the table and went to take the kit.

“Don’t know, I’m going to check,” Daryl replied. “You okay here?”

You nodded, already working on T-Dogs arm. You were cleaning the wound as best as possible hoping it didn’t need stitches since you had never done that, when Daryl came back, the look in his eyes scaring you.

“Sophia ran to the woods chased by some walkers.” He announced and you felt your heart skip a beat. “Rick ran behind them, we have to wait for them to come back.”

You looked at him with wide eyes, scared. Could Sophia be able to hide from the walkers? She was only a little girl. At least Rick had gone with her… Before you could say anything, Daryl turned around and went back to the others, Cole following him.

You wrapped a bandage around T-Dogs arm tightly, hoping it’d be enough, though he wasn’t looking that good.

“Want a dinosaur band-aid?” You offered with a worried smile.

“Don’t think it’s going to do much but it looks pretty.” T-Dog returned your weak smile. “Come on, go check on the others.” He told you when he noticed you glancing at them through the window.

“You sure you’re okay alone here?”

T-Dog nodded and you rushed to the group who was anxiously looking to the woods. Daryl was on top of a car, watching around the perimeter in case another group of walkers approached, and Shane was holding Carol, who was crying. You wished you could offer her some comfort, but you didn’t know how.

When Rick came back without Sophia your heart dropped. Daryl jumped off the car he had been standing on, saying he was going to look for her, Rick, Glenn, and Shane joining too. Daryl turned to you.

"Can I-”

 

“Yes.” You cut him off before he could finish his sentence, knowing he wanted Cole. Your dog had never had to find someone’s trail but he had played a lot with Sophia and you hoped he might find her scent or something. “I could go too.”

Daryl looked at you for a short moment seeming torn, before nodding.  
Rick raised an eyebrow as if he were going to say something but shook his head and nodded at you, and you five headed into the woods.

As you followed Daryl while he tracked Sophia, you began to wonder if joining them had been a good idea. You were used to the woods, sure, but you had never tracked, neither were you a cop like Rick and Shane had been. You were feeling pretty useless, and you thought Glenn was there with you, both of you were at the rear of the group, looking around as to make sure no walker surprised you.

At some point Shane and Glenn decided to go back and check on the others on the road while Daryl and Rick kept looking, following what Daryl thought was Sophia’s trail. You didn’t know what to do, you still thought you weren’t helping but you didn’t like the idea of going back to Carol without Sophia, knowing it would break her. You rather try and keep looking for the little girl and so you stayed with Daryl and Rick.

Daryl seemed to have Sophia’s trail, though neither you nor Rick could see it, but you trusted Daryl’s knowledge. Cole sniffed the ground near Daryl from time to time, but you weren’t sure if he was smelling Sophia or not.

As you walked behind Daryl and Rick, once again feeling out of place, you couldn’t help but think how, for someone who argued as much as them and who were as different, they worked quite good together. When you encountered a walker ahead, they communicated without words, Rick distracting the walker so Daryl could shot it dead. It was impressive. Probably you should have stayed with the others instead of tag along with them doing nothing.

When Rick inspected the walker, saying it had just eaten and you had to cut it open so as to make sure he hadn’t eaten Sophia, your stomach turned, but you forced yourself to look while Daryl cut it open. You had to be strong. Still, when he began to take out guts and what not, you couldn’t keep looking. The only good news was that it hadn’t eaten Sophia.

You couldn’t look at Carol when you came back without Sophia, knowing you hadn’t done anything helpful to find her. The sun was going down and you had been forced to stop the search until the morning.

Carol was totally broken, everyone was trying to comfort her with words that sounded empty to you, but you went to hide into the RV, the despair you had been feeling since losing the CDC just growing more and more inside you.

What was the point anymore, if what Jenner had said was true, then Fort Benning would be another bust, nothing was standing, there was no hope, no safe place, no plan for things to get better, and in your search of it you had just lost a little girl, how more of those people who were becoming your friends would you have to see going missing, or turning, or dying in front of you.

You always tried to keep your spirit high, never thinking about the loses, always trying to look forwards and not back, forcing yourself to keep going, but at that moment, you couldn’t help but wonder if you could have hope in anything anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw no, Sophia is missing and reader is feeling down :( But at least we got some Daryl/reader bonding time, what did you think of it? We’re getting into Daryl’s head again next week!
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We’re halfway through this fic! Last chapter Sophia went missing and reader was feeling not her best. We’re going to dive into Daryl’s mind now…

Daryl paced furiously in the woods near the road, grunting as he kicked a tree in frustration. They had been all day looking for Sophia and not only hadn’t they found the little girl they had almost lost the other kid too. A strange girl in a horse had shown up out of nowhere, saying Carl had been shot by accident and Rick and Shane were with him on her farm, and then she had taken Lori with her. 

It had been decided everybody else would be joining them in the morning, so they’d made some signs and gotten some food ready in case Sophia came back looking for them. Daryl didn’t want to leave but he also knew they couldn’t keep staying at that intersection, and anyway the farm wasn’t far, he could keep looking for Sophia from there. 

He had just come back from looking for her with Andrea and Y/N. He had been trying to sleep but he couldn’t with Carol crying quietly, seeming so broken, so he had gotten up to keep looking. Y/N and Andrea hadn’t been able to sleep either and they had joined him, but they had come back without Sophia once again, much to Carol’s despair. Daryl wondered if she was starting to lose hope. He had to find that little girl, but truth be told, he had lost the trail and hadn’t found any signal of her.

He kicked the tree again and heard a whine coming from behind him. He turned around and found Cole looking at him.

“What you doing out here, uh?”

Daryl murmured, approaching the dog and patting his head as he looked around. If Cole was there then Y/N probably too. He heard a rustle and there she was, walking towards him as she looked around, clutching the gun he had given her. Shane had tried to take it away when for some reason he decided some of them couldn’t carry guns, but Daryl hadn’t had nothing of that.

“We could ask you the same.” She holstered the gun when she reached him. “Are you going to look for Sophia again? Want me to go with you?”

“Nah, let’s go back.”

Daryl didn’t like the idea of Sophia spending the night in the woods again, it was dangerous, but he knew there was no point trying to find tracks at night when he hadn’t found anything yet. Sophia would hide somewhere and then he’ll find her in the morning. He had to.

He fought the strange urge to place a hand on Y/N’s back to walk her through the trees and to the road. He didn’t know why he felt like that sometimes when they were walking together and he wasn’t sure if he liked it. It could be maybe for all the small, comforting touches he got from Y/N, a hand on his shoulder or on his arm when she seemed to think he was feeling down. At first he had flinched at them, out of instinct and awkwardness, but not anymore. He kind of liked it now, and Daryl wasn’t sure of how that made him feel either.

“I’m gonna take watch.” Daryl told Dale once they reached the RV, the man had been on watch the whole night.

“You sure?” Came Dale’s voice from the RV roof.

“You wanna sleep or not, old man?” Daryl grumbled.

“Mean.” Y/N pocked his arm, but he knew by the tone of her voice that she was mostly kidding.

Once Dale was down the roof, Daryl climbed up the ladder, noticing Y/N climbing behind him. He thought about telling her to go to sleep, but if she had set her mind on keeping watch too, then she wouldn’t listen. Dale had a chair there but Daryl sat down on the roof, leaving the chair for Y/N. She ignored it too, though, sitting down next to him. Cole looked at them from the ground, yawning and deciding to lie down, probably to wait for them to go down with him.

“You should be sleeping.” He finally said to Y/N.

“Don’t think I can…” She whispered back.

Daryl knew she had been feeling down. At first he had thought she was still shaken and scared after hiding from that group of walkers, and also worried about Sophia, but now he wasn’t sure. She had been quiet since last night, unusually quiet, nothing like her normal self. She didn’t participate while he and the others made plans for Sophia’s search, she didn’t join the conversations, she had been walking at the rear of the group all the times, talking with none, even when there had only been Daryl, her and Andrea. Daryl didn’t know what was on her mind but it worried him. He wanted to know it so maybe he could help her, just the same way he wanted to protect her and keep her safe.

He still didn’t know why he felt like that about her and he still didn’t know if he liked it or not, but truth was he couldn’t help it, no matter how much he fought it. When those walkers had approached, all he could think was to keep her and the dog safe. Sure, he wouldn’t want any of the others to be bitten or anything, but with Y/N it felt like an alarm was blasting in his head until he was sure she was safe. It was annoying and it was scary. Daryl guessed it meant they were friends. He felt Y/N cared about him too, it seemed like that. He didn’t know how long it’d last, though.

He had thought that what had happened at the CDC would have made things different between them or end their friendship, but it didn’t seem like that. Y/N kept treating him like always, kept talking with him, still seemed to want to be around him. Daryl guessed it was because what had happened between them hadn’t meant anything to her, she had just been scared. He had thought now he’d feel more awkward with her but he didn’t, he was still surprised with how comfortable he was around her and how much he wanted her close. It was scary and strange. Daryl had tried to forget what had happened at the CDC, but it still came to his mind more often than not, though he always pushed it back again. He never brought it up, so as not to make things awkward or push her away. Fight it as much as he wanted, Daryl wanted Y/N to still be his friend, didn’t want to be without her, no matter it made him feel weak.

Y/N let out a soft sigh and Daryl looked at her. She was hugging her knees to her chest and looking at the stars, her face dark and thoughtful, not bright with her smile like that night on the woods when she told him about the stars. Daryl wanted to ask her what was wrong but he didn’t know how.

It was probably about Sophia. He should have found her by now, she wasn’t supposed to have to spend another night alone in the woods. He couldn’t hear Carol from up there, but he knew she was still awake, crying. Daryl didn’t allow himself to think he wouldn’t find Sophia, he had to. He had gotten lost in the woods as a kid too, younger than Sophia and without anybody looking for him, and yet he had been alright. Sophia would be alright too and he would find her and bring her back to her mother.

Right now Daryl was feeling a bit lost about how to do it, though. He had tracked her, followed her trail, but somehow at some point he had lost it and hadn’t been able to find any sign of the little girl, no matter how hard he tried, Sophia seemed to have banished, nobody found her anywhere. He should have tried harder, he shouldn’t have lost her trail in the first place.

Daryl had been gnawing at his thumbnail and the skin around it, and he tasted blood when he tore up the skin a bit too much. He ignored it and kept chewing on the skin, lost in thought.

“Stop it.” Y/N’s voice took it out of his thoughts. She took his hand to inspect his thumb and Daryl fought the impulse to yank his hand away from hers roughly. “You hurt yourself.”

“Ain’t nothing.” He muttered, feeling a bit uncomfortable with his hand on hers.

“You have to be careful, you know how easily these things can get infected. Especially you, all day elbows deep in guts and what not.” Y/N took out of her pocket one of those silly band-aids she had found, wrapping it around his thumb although Daryl was pretty sure it didn’t need it. “T-Rex for you.”

Daryl scoffed but couldn’t help his smile seeing hers, the first time she smiled since Sophia got lost. She looked at the band-aid and chuckled softly.

“Imagine how silly it’d be, a T-Rex trying to shot a crossbow with those tiny, tiny arms.”

“You’re silly.” Daryl replied, surprising even himself with how fond his voice sounded. Y/N said nothing, just smiled at him. She still hadn’t let go of his hand and Daryl didn’t know what to do, take it away or not. Y/N seemed to notice him shifting nervously, though, and let go of his hand. She leaned back to look up at the stairs again, her smile gone.

“You’re worried about Sophia?”

“How wouldn’t I? She’s alone in those woods and we haven’t found anything…”

“You don’t think I can find her.” Daryl looked away, hating how disappointed the realization made him feel.

“Hey, I didn’t say that.” Daryl looked at her and he wasn’t sure, but he thought she sounded genuine. “If someone can find Sophia it’s you.” Daryl looked away again, blushing, feeling those weird twirls in his stomach.

“She can’t have gone far, must be holed up somewhere. I’ll find her in the morning.” Daryl had to keep thinking that. People didn’t just disappear and he hadn’t seen that many walkers around while looking for Sophia. The little girl would be safe and he’ll find her.

Despite her words, Y/N still seemed down and thoughtful.

“There’s something else?” He asked with bated breath, afraid Y/N would be upset at him asking. She stayed silent for a short moment and Daryl though he had said something wrong, but then she let out a long sigh.

“I’m useless.” She whispered.

“What?” Daryl looked at her taken aback, he didn’t know what she was talking about. “What you mean? You were already putting down walkers when all these people didn’t even aim for the brain.”

“Cos I had seen you doing it before.” Y/N gave him a soft, sad smile. Daryl knew that back at the quarry she had been watching him when he got his kills ready, learning, but it seemed that weren’t the only times. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. “But I mean, this search…I’ve done nothing.”

“You’ve been searching, like everyone.” Daryl was still confused as for why Y/N was talking like that.

“I didn’t find anything…I don’t even know why I told you I’d go, I can’t track like you, Shane and Rick were cops, I just…don’t know anything that can be useful.” Y/N shrugged again, looking defeated.

“You know the woods.”

“No, not like you. I only knew the woods near my house, told you, always following the same marked paths. Sure, I know which plant will help with an upset stomach or which mushrooms you can eat, but it’s not like that’s going to help Sophia. Probably if I go looking for her on my own I’d get lost too.”

“You ain’t making sense.” Daryl didn’t know why Y/N was talking like that, it was nothing like her. “You can get oriented in the woods, I’ve seen you.”

“Not good enough, that time we went out hunting for deer, I wouldn’t have been able to come back on my own, I’m sure.”

Daryl didn’t agree, didn’t like to hear her talk like that, but he wasn’t sure of what to say. “Quit saying bullshit, what’s gotten into you?” He didn’t want to snap harshly like that, but he couldn’t help himself. Y/N didn’t seem mad at him, though, just tired.

“Guess if I had known everyone was going to turn into monsters and they were going to take over the world I’d have started training for it.” She joked bitterly. “So I’d be like you, resourceful and skilled. Sophia would be lost if she hadn’t you tracking her.”

“Rick and Shane would be looking for her. I didn’t train for the end of the world or nothing, girl.” Daryl grumbled, her flattering words making him feel uncomfortable.

“You’re a survivor nonetheless.”

Daryl didn’t know what to say to that and so he said nothing. He usually liked the silence but as he stole glances at Y/N’s dark face, he found himself wanting to say something else to her.

“You ain’t useless, I don’t know why you’re saying all that bullshit but it ain’t true.” Daryl forced himself to speak. “If we make groups to look for Sophia I have you and the dog in mine.”

That made Y/N smile. "Thanks. You make a good team with Rick though. It’s true.” She added when Daryl scoffed at that, though he had to admit Rick had surprised him during this couple of days. 

“Guess I’m not feeling the more hopeful.” Y/N shrugged. “We’re going to Fort Benning but I can’t think we’ll find something there, it’ll be another CDC.” Daryl didn’t have words of comfort to offer and so he stayed silent. “And what we’ll do then? Camp somewhere again? This good weather is not going to last much longer and another herd of walkers will find us sooner than later…”

“Dunno…” Daryl didn’t know what to expect from Fort Benning but he wasn’t that hopeful either. He was following those people because there was nothing else he could do, none else to be with.

“And we aren’t even near Fort Benning and Sophia’s missing, and we almost lost Carl too, how many more people are we going to lose from now on?” Y/N kept ranting, sounding more and more overwhelmed and sad, and Daryl couldn’t take it but he didn’t have the answers she was hoping for.

“Stop it.” He snapped.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t say those things about Sophia. You’ll find her.” Y/N gave him another sad smile and Daryl didn’t know if she believed it or she was just saying it for him. “I’m talking your ear off, I’m such a boomer, I’m sorry.” She let out a sigh.

“Nah.” Daryl shrugged, thinking how to word what he wanted to say. “Just don’t know why you’re saying all that shit about you. Ain’t true.”

Y/N looked at him without saying anything and Daryl wondered if she was angry at him, but then she smiled. “Thanks.” She said weakly. “Guess I’m not feeling my best right now.”

“I’m gonna find Sophia and Carl’s gonna be fine, we ain’t gonna lose none, we’ll find somewhere to stay.” Daryl tried to speak with as much confidence as he could muster, even though he wasn’t sure it was true. The kids would be alright, sure, but if Fort Benning was another bust, if everything was truly gone, then he didn’t know where they could try their luck.

Y/N just nodded in silence and Daryl looked at her as she shifted onto her knees.

“Daryl…” She began quietly. “I want to hug you but I don’t want you to freak out.”

Daryl swallowed hard. He didn’t know what to do, where to look at, what to say, suddenly nervous. It was silly, he had had her on his arms, his lips on hers, why did he turn flustered and nervous like that because she wanted to hug him? That train of thoughts just made it worse. She had hugged him before, after the herd of walkers left the road, but it had lasted barely a couple of seconds, and she had done it out of terror, same reason she had on the CDC. And he should really stop thinking about the CDC. It was a hug…not that he had been given many, but it was just a hug, nothing to be scared of, he was being an idiot. Daryl nodded, trying to put himself together.

Y/N smiled softly and she wrapped her arms around him carefully. Daryl felt himself stiff, he couldn’t help it, but he forced himself to relax. Slowly, his hands found their way to her waist and he closed his eyes, enjoying her warmth and closeness maybe too much.

When Y/N released him Daryl quickly pulled his hands away from her and looked away, clearing his throat. He just couldn’t help his awkwardness.

"I can keep watch alone, go to sleep.”

Y/N shrugged. “I’m good here.”

Daryl knew better than to try to change her mind. “Do you know something else about the stars?”

*

Daryl didn’t find Sophia the next day, or the day after that. They moved into the farm, the owner allowed them to stay while Carl got better, but Daryl didn’t pay the Greene’s family much attention, focusing all his time on the search for Sophia.

Sometimes Y/N joined him, other times she stayed behind for target practice, since Shane and Rick had decided to start gun training. Which would be great if it weren’t because that meant less time to look for Sophia and that should be the priority, the little girl shouldn’t have to be more time alone in the woods. Sometimes Daryl felt he was alone in that. He didn’t mind though, he was good alone and those people couldn’t track for shit, but the more they were the more ground they could cover.

Sometimes he wondered if they had all given up, though Rick kept the search up. They didn’t say it aloud, but Daryl knew everyone was less and less hopeful about finding Sophia alive.

Maybe only Carol thought he’d find her little girl, but how could she think otherwise, that meant she’d have to think her daughter was dead. Every time he came back without Sophia, though, he could see how more and more hope died in Carol’s eyes. Daryl had given her that flower, told her that story, hoping it’d made her feel better, but he hated he had nothing else to offer her. Carol was a good woman who had had enough shit in her life, she didn’t deserve that, and certainly Sophia hadn’t deserved it either. She had to be alright and Daryl had to find her.

Y/N always told him that he’d find Sophia when she seemed to think he was feeling down, helped him when she could, but Daryl wasn’t sure if she really believed it or if she only said that for Carol and for him. Either way it was welcomed. Half of the time he felt like snapping and yelling at all the others for not being doing enough.

The sun was going down and Daryl walked back into the farm, once again without Sophia. Carol saw him and she even managed to give him a weak smile, she never said anything, never blamed him, just thanked him, but Daryl saw her eyes watering before she rushed into the RV and he felt like someone had kicked him in the gut.

Y/N hadn’t come with him that day and neither had he taken Cole, feeling Y/N needed her dog more than him now, so he went looking for them. He found her in a stable, brushing a horse, seeming in deep thought. Daryl watched her in silence until Cole noticed he was there, barking as if greeting him and going to him. Y/N turned around, giving him a soft smile.

“No luck?”

Daryl shook his head as he approached and Y/N reached out to place a hand on his arm, squeezing gently for a second, before turning back to the horse she was brushing. Daryl wasn’t much of a fan of horses, not that he disliked them or anything, but that one seemed to like Y/N, head-butting her and making her laugh softly. That was good, she used to laugh a lot and lately she barely did it.

“You like horses?” He asked and Y/N hummed a yes.

“We had a few at home. Guests liked them.” Y/N explained, and her smile grew a little bigger when he noticed Daryl frowning at the horse. “You don’t?”

“I don’t hate them or nothing…I rather ride a bike…but it ain’t that I don’t like them.” Daryl shrugged defensively. “I just think they’re funny to look at…” He admitted even though he felt silly.

Y/N laughed and Daryl looked away, self-conscious. Y/N seemed to notice and she reached out for him again, this time to squeeze his hand, and Daryl’s heart skipped a beat before he forced himself to put himself together and stop making a fool out of himself.

“I’m thinking about taking one tomorrow, go further, cover more ground,” Daryl explained her. “I think that house I found is still our best chance, I think Sophia was there, I want to check the area around it.”

“Okay, I’ll go with you.” Y/N announced and Daryl couldn’t help the tiny smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. “It’s been a while since I rode a horse but I’m pretty sure I’m way better than you at it.” Y/N winked at him and Daryl couldn’t help but blush, looking down as if trying to hide from her, hating how she could make him all flustered just like that.

“Come on, let’s grab some dinner and make plans for tomorrow.”

Y/N took his hand again to tug at it, which only made him more flustered, but seeing Y/N smiling and seeming to look forward to the search after how down she had been feeling had him smiling too. He just couldn’t help it.

Maybe tomorrow would be the day in which they finally found Sophia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well,well, it’s going to be an interesting ride, isn’t it? What you thought of this chapter? I know not much happened. Writing from Daryl’s pov is tricky but oh so adictive.
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter everyone moved into the Greene’s farm, Daryl kept looking for Sophia and he and the reader decided they’d be taking a couple horses to go looking for the little girl. Let’s see how it goes…

You stole glances at Daryl while you rode next to him. He wasn’t too used to horses but honestly, he wasn’t doing bad at all. You would be loving this, riding with him through the woods, if it weren’t because you were looking for Sophia and the more time passed the less hopeful you were about finding her alive.

Still, you couldn’t help your smile as you looked at Daryl, your stomach doing funny twirls. You were so grateful for him, always noticing when you weren’t feeling your best and trying to help you however he could, you didn’t know what you’d have done these horrible days since escaping the CDC without him. You admired him for his constant search of Sophia, never faltering, never seeming to doubt. You thought sometimes he felt down too and you tried to help him back as little as you could, but mostly it was him who kept hope high and you admired him for it. He took care of you, though if someone said it he’d probably lash out grumpily, and you hoped you took care of him too.

You tried to stop your wandering mind and focus back on your task, it was past time you found Sophia.

You had been uneasy about taking the horses without asking Hershel, but you weren’t sure the vet would have lent them if you asked, he wasn’t seeming too happy about having you there. You wondered if it was because of her daughter Maggie and Glenn. You thought there was something going on between those two and when you had asked Glenn he had turned all flustered and babbling, which you thought kind of confirmed it. You couldn’t blame him, you knew what it was to feel lonely and that girl was a beauty, but you hoped it wouldn’t get you all kicked out of the safety of the farm, especially with Sophia still missing.

You had worried about taking horses that you didn’t know too, but for now they were behaving well. Cole ran ahead of you, sniffing here and there, though you weren’t hopeful he was smelling Sophia’s trail.

“There.” Daryl pointed at a tattered house, the one he had told you about, where he thought Sophia might have been staying.

You both went inside in case Sophia had come back, but it was empty. Still, the sight of the empty cans and the closet where someone had been staying made you feel more hopeful than you had been during the last couple of days. Daryl was right, Sophia might have been staying there.

“Alright.” Daryl showed you the map while you both walked back to the horses. “I already checked that area, and she wasn’t there.” He pointed out the different places on the map. “I think she also could have gone to this area, over the river, or in this other direction.”

“Okay… I check this one and you check the other.” You pointed at the map before folding it again.

“I ain’t sure splitting up is a good idea…” Daryl frowned at you.

“We’ll cover more ground, we need it. I’m not getting lost, promise.” You had paid attention and you were sure you knew your way back to the farm, and you had borrowed a compass from Glenn. “And there aren’t many walkers around, if I find some then I ride back. And I can work a gun now.” You still had a lot to learn, but at least you were learning.

“Don’t shoot unless you can’t help it or you’ll bring more to you. Gotta be quiet.” Daryl was still frowning.

“I know, it’ll be fine.” You assured him, already getting back on the horse.

“I don’t know…it ain’t good to go alone…”

“You go alone all the time. We gotta find her.” You reminded him. “I’ll be fine, I promise, I’ll be careful.”

“Okay…” Daryl nodded reluctantly. “Get back to the farm before the sun starts to go down, you hear me?”

“Yes, boss.” You winked at him, loving the soft blush that tainted his cheeks. “Nothing’s going to happen, I told you, I’ll be careful.”

“You better.”

“Who knows, I might be the one who ends up finding Sophia instead of you.” You tried to get a smile out of Daryl but he was still eyeing you with worry. “It’s going to be okay, come on, let’s go. Be careful, alright?”

“You be careful.”

*

As you rode back to the Greene’s farm you felt down and hopeless again, not to mention useless. You had been scouting the area Daryl had told you for hours, yet you hadn’t found Sophia or any trace of the little girl.

You were worried thinking maybe she was actually there, somewhere, or close, but you couldn’t track her because you didn’t know how to do it. Maybe Daryl and you had split for nothing and he’d have to go there and check himself anyway, wasting time.

There was the chance Daryl had found her, but you weren’t in your most hopeful moment. There was also the chance Sophia had already been attacked by walkers, but you couldn’t even think about that. At least there didn’t seem to be many walkers around, you had only seen two. You had wondered what to do, leave before they saw you or put them down so they wouldn’t stumble into anyone, but you hadn’t dared to try to kill two of them all by yourself.

Back on the farm, you tried to sneak to the stable without being seen but Maggie was waiting for you, hands on her hips and a frown on her face. Well, shit.

“Where’s the other horse?”

“Daryl’s looking for Sophia with her, they’ll be back soon.” You said while you dismounted and walked the horse into the stable, not making eye contact with Maggie.

“I hope the horse throws him onto his ass for taking her without permission, Nervous Nelly she’s called, she does that.” Maggie followed you, sounding annoyed.

You look at her at that. “The horse does what?!” She had seemed good enough while you both rode but now you couldn’t help but worry. Maggie seemed to notice she had scared you, her anger faltering a little.

“Well…only when she gets scared and not always.” She sounded less angry though you could tell she was still annoyed.

“I should go find Daryl.”

You couldn’t help but worry thinking the horse might have thrown him off, you shouldn’t have split, you knew Daryl wasn’t as used as you to horses and you didn’t even know those horses, you shouldn’t have taken them in the first place. Maggie grabbed your wrist, preventing you from getting back onto the horse.

“Not the best idea right now.” She nodded towards the door and you saw Hershel approaching, though he was still far enough. “He’s mad at you.”

Maggie tugged at your arm and you both walked out of the barn. You shook your arm free when you were far enough from Hershel, you still intended on going back for Daryl.

“All you had to do was ask.” Maggie snapped.

“And your father’d have lent us the horses?” You snap back. “I doubt it, I know he doesn’t want us here.”

“Can you blame him? You came here, carrying guns he doesn’t approve, take my little sister to train with those guns.” Maggie began listing. “He was already wary of you and now you stole his horses.”

“We borrowed them…” You muttered and Maggie rolled her eyes, ignoring you.

“He does want you to find the little girl, okay? If you had asked he might have lent you the horses or at least he’d have told you which one not to take, but instead you just made him angrier.”

You looked down, not knowing what to say to all that. You had been pestering Glenn about hooking up with Hershel’s daughter, thinking it might get you kicked out of the farm, but you knew if Hershel wasn’t thinking about that before then he certainly was now and all because you decided to take his horses without asking. Not only that but Daryl might end up hurt because of that too. You wanted to kick yourself and you felt like crying. Cole whined a bit hearing the argument and Maggie patted his head.

“Dad’s not going to send you all away, he’s angry, yeah, but he’ll get over it…” Maggie’s voice was softer now, as if noticing how upset you were. “I’m not gonna lie, he wants you all to leave, but I’ll talk him around, I’ll try to make him understand you won’t be safe out of here.”

“Hope you manage or you’ll be saying goodbye to your boyfriend.” You muttered.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” Maggie snapped but she blushed.

“Yeah, sure.”

Maggie let out a sigh before reaching out a hand to you, peace offer you guessed. “Come on, Carol and Lori are cooking dinner for all of us, let’s help them.”

“I have to find Daryl.”

“He’s gonna be fine, he looks like he can handle himself.” Maggie tried to reassure you. “If the horse throws him off then he’ll come back with some bruises and he won’t be taking horses without asking first ever again.” Maggie gave you a small smile but you shook your head, worried still. “Come on, I’ve fallen off a horse before and I bet you too, he’ll be fine.”

“It’s dangerous, he can get badly hurt if the horse throws him, you know it,” You said, feeling a lump in your throat.

Maggie let out a sigh, shaking her head, before looking at you again.

“Okay, okay…let’s give him about an hour okay? And then if he’s not back we take two horses and I’ll go with you to look for him, alright?”

You weren’t sure about waiting, if Daryl was hurt then he might need you already, but Maggie knew the area better than you and you could use her help. Besides, maybe you were overreacting and Daryl was alright after all, you knew well how skilled he was. You nodded sadly.

“I’m sure your boyfriend is fine.”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Maggie chuckled softly and you couldn’t help your small smile.

“He’s not, though.”

You both walked into the house and to the kitchen, where Carol, Lori and Patricia were getting dinner ready.

“You went out looking for Sophia again?” Carol asked you when she spotted you.

“Yes.” You nodded, feeling guilty you didn’t bring any good news. “Daryl’s still at it.”

“Thank you.” Carol gave you a weak, sad smile, reaching to squeeze your hand, and you just felt worse.

You helped around for a while but as time passed and Daryl still wasn’t back, you couldn’t help but grow more and more worried.

“You were serious about helping me?” You asked quietly to Maggie, who nodded. “Sun’s going down and he’s not back…”

“Come on.” She looked around as to make sure Hershel wasn’t around and you both sneaked out of the house. You crossed paths with Rick and Shane, who came from target practice.

“Hey, have you seen Daryl?” You asked, hoping he was back but he hadn’t thought about coming to check on you.

“No, he’s not here, I guess he’s still looking for Sophia,” Rick told you before getting into the house.

When Maggie and you walked into the stables you saw that the horse Daryl had taken was there, saddle and everything still on, but Daryl was nowhere to be seen. Your heart jumped onto your mouth and you looked at Maggie with wide, scared eyes. When had the horse come back and why wasn’t Daryl with him.

“I’m sure he’s okay,” Maggie told you but she sounded unsure too.

You wanted to cry. Daryl had been worried about splitting up in case you ran into trouble, you should have thought about him too, knowing he wasn’t that used to horses. You shouldn’t have let him ride a horse that none of you knew, and alone. If you’d have said something he’d probably been angry and would have lashed out, but it’d have been better than him getting hurt because of it.

“I bet maybe the horse threw him off and he’s having to walk his sorry ass back here.” Maggie kept trying to reassure you. “But I bet he’s alright, let’s find him and you can give him a ride back like a lady knight in shiny armor.”

“Come on.”

You hadn’t gotten far from the farm when you heard a gunshot coming from there. Both Maggie and you looked at each other, eyes wide and scared, and galloped back. You both jumped off the horses as soon as you reached the house.

“What happened?”

“It’s everyone okay?”

There were people coming in and out the house in a rush, obviously something had happened but none stopped long enough to tell any of you anything, until Carol approached you, seeming distressed and holding what you thought was Sophia’s doll. Had Daryl found the little girl? Were they alright?

“It’s Daryl.” Carol’s worried eyes matched yours. “There’s been an accident.”

“The horse threw him.” This was your fault…

“The horse? I don’t know…” Carol looked at you confused. “Andrea shot him.”

“What?!”

“It was an accident.” Glenn chimed in as he rushed towards Maggie.

“Honestly he looked like a walker, you should have seen him.” Shane words did nothing to help your worries and you glared at him.

“I have no time for this shit.” You muttered, annoyed and worried

There were only two bedrooms downstairs and one was occupied by the still recovering Carl, so you headed to the other, guessing they must have taken Daryl there. You pushed the door open and found Daryl lying on the bed, groaning in pain while Hershel worked on him, helped by Patricia and Rick.

“Wait outside!” Patricia tried to usher you but you ignored her. “And get that dog out of here!”

“No.” Daryl groaned.

“What do I do?” You walked towards the bed, ready to help in any way you could. You winced as you saw Hershel working on an awful looking wound at Daryl’s side. He had another wound on the side of his head and he was all battered and bruised, looking out of himself.

“You don’t take horses without asking for permission,” Hershel replied harshly without looking at you.

“The horse threw him, right?” You looked down, chastised.

“Yes. And then that woman shot him with one of those rifles I told you not to have in my land. I don’t know how he got this, though.” It was clear Hershel was angry, but he worked swiftly nonetheless.

“Arrow.” Daryl whimpered when Hershel began sewing the wound.

Daryl reached out and you went to take his hand but he placed it on top of Cole’s head, who was as close to the bed as possible, whining as he looked at Daryl. Daryl’s fingers curled into Cole’s fur and you snorted quietly.

“You really love this dog more than you’ll ever love any of us, uh?” You whispered. “I don’t blame you.” You placed your hand on top of Daryl’s, hating to see him in pain and seeming so weak, you’d never seen him like that.

You had a lump in your throat watching Hershel work on Daryl’s head wound and hearing Daryl whimper in pain quietly from time to time as Hershel stitched him. He had been so lucky the bullet had only grazed him or else he’d be dead.

“Alright.” Hershel finally stepped away from the bed. “I’ve done everything I could, now he has to rest and keep the wounds clean. The painkillers should help. Hope you all learned your lesson.” He looked at you intently, as if you needed to feel more guilty, before leaving the room, muttering how it was a miracle Daryl had survived whatever he’d gone through, which felt like a kick to the stomach.

You sat down at the side of the bed, looking over Daryl. He wasn’t whimpering anymore though his eyes were still bleary. You weren’t sure if he was really conscious or not but his fingers were running through Cole’s fur weakly.

“Why would you take the horses without asking Hershel?” Rick asked and you groaned.

“Don’t start with that you too.” You glared at him, you felt guilty enough. “We had to look for Sophia, Daryl thought we would cover more ground like that and it doesn’t seem like Hershel is into lending us anything else…”

“He didn’t find Sophia,” Rick said quietly.

“Found her doll,” Daryl said weakly as he tried to sit up, wincing and groaning in pain, ignoring you when you tried to stop him. “She can’t be far from there. Give me the map.”

“Okay…” Rick looked at Daryl unsure but he nodded. “I’ll let everyone know you’re okay.” He said before walking out of the room.

“Like they care,” Daryl muttered.

“Don’t talk like that.” You told him softly. “They’re all worried about you out there.”

“Sure. I know what they think of me.”

“Yes, that you’re a damn skilled, stubborn survivor, who finally got a clue at where Sophia might be.”

Daryl just scoffed.

“Look how worried my dog is,” you said, knowing fully well that it’d make him smile. It did. “I was too. We care about you, okay? And Carol, she-”

Before you could say anything else the door opened again and Rick and Shane walked in, bringing the map. Rick sat down carefully at the other side of Daryl, rolling the map open on top of the bed. Shane stood frowning at you all.

“I found the doll there.” Daryl pointed at the map. He still sounded weak and pained, and it seemed he was fighting just to keep his eyes open, but you knew he wouldn’t let himself rest until he had told you everything he could to help you find Sophia. “She can’t be far from there.”

“Okay, we’ll check it as soon as we can.” Rick marked the spot on the map and you arched an eyebrow, wondering how soon would that be.

“It’s just a doll.” Shane finally spoke. “And look, man, you aren’t looking like you even know where you were ten minutes ago.”

“What you mean?” You snapped, glaring at him.

“Shane, can we speak outside, please?” Rick said before any of you could say anything else. Shane rolled his eyes but nodded and both men left without another word.

“They ain’t gonna look for her,” Daryl grumbled, wincing as he shifted to lie down again, closing his eyes with a groan.

“I’ll make them.”

Daryl opened an eye to look at you, smirking. He groaned again when Cole jumped onto the bed, joisting it.

“Careful.”

You went to drag Cole back but Daryl was already reaching out to stroke his fur, and Cole curled up next to him. You chuckled quietly when you saw he still had the t-rex band-aid wrapped around his thumb, though it was full of dirt and blood now, and you took his hand on yours to unwrap it.

“It was time I took off that silly thing.” He murmured.

“Yeah? When Hershel removes that bandage off your head you’re getting a raptor one there.”

“Ain’t happening.”

He hadn’t taken his hand off yours and so you began to gently brush your thumb over his knuckles.

“This was a bad idea.” You said quietly.

“What?”

“Taking the horses.” You felt so guilty you couldn’t look at him. “We should have asked Maggie or Hershel, they’d have told us that horse’d throw you. We shouldn’t have taken horses we didn’t know.”

“We needed them to find Sophia, didn’t know if Hershel’d lend them.” Daryl was looking at your thumb traced circular patterns over his knuckles. You stopped, wondering if you were making him uncomfortable but he wasn’t flinching his hand away so you kept holding it.

“He might…And we shouldn’t have split.” Then you’d have been with him when the horse threw him off, you could have helped him, maybe even prevent the horse from throwing him. Daryl himself had admitted he didn’t like riding horses that much and yet you had let him go in one alone, Daryl was skilled, sure, but you were more used to horses, this was on you. Daryl could have died.“This is my fault.”

“That’s bullshit.” Daryl frowned at you, seeming confused. “Damn horse saw a snake and threw me down a hill and I was dumb enough to impale myself with my own arrow and I was almost dinner for walkers, and then I come back and Andrea shoots me. Ain’t your fault, you did nothing. Damn shit of a day.”

“Shit, Daryl…” You couldn’t help but squeeze his hand tighter when you heard everything he had gone through. “I was so worried when Maggie told me the horse might throw you, and then the sun was going down and you weren’t back but the horse was, I went to look for you, Maggie came with me too…I was so scared…” You were surprised when you felt Daryl’s shaky fingers lacing with yours. You looked at him but he averted his eyes from you.

“Thanks,” he said quietly, barely above a whisper.

“I should have been with you, I could have helped you. I’m sorry. We’re not splitting anymore, it’s not good to go alone.”

“Ain’t your fault, told you already. I’m good alone” Daryl grumbled. “I’ll go find Sophia tomorrow, she has to be there.”

You snorted quietly, shaking your head in disbelieve. “You are not going anywhere in a while, Daryl. You have to recover.”

“I’m fine.” He let go of your hand, wincing as he shifted to curl up on his good side. You could see his back now, covered in old, deep scars. You wondered how he had gotten them, someone had given them to him for sure, maybe it had something to do with all the trouble he and his brother seemed to have been always getting into, according to the little Daryl had told you about his life. He had a tattoo on his shoulder too, two kind of winged figures, maybe devils, you weren’t too sure of what they represented. Kind of got you thinking about the Dixon brothers, though.

“That’s a nice tattoo you got,” you said quietly and Daryl didn’t say anything, seeming tense. You took the sheets and you pulled them up so they’d cover his back too. “Thanks,” Daryl muttered, wrapping himself with the sheets tightly and closing his eyes.

“Rest.”

Your heart ached looking at him, he seemed so weak and not like his usual self. He had to rest, whether he wanted it or not, and you knew the painkillers Hershel had given him would make him sleepy, so you stayed silent to encourage him to fall asleep. Once he did, you careful got up from the bed to let him rest and also to have some dinner. Cole opened his eyes, yawning and looking at you drowsily, and you chuckled quietly.

“You can stay here, lazy dog.”

You whispered, patting his head. You looked at Daryl’s sleepy face, his frown burrowing as if he were in pain or having a bad dream. Resisting the urge to reach out to smooth his frown, you got up and quietly left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw, poor Daryl got hurt :( But you know how much I love the idea of taking care of him, so we have some reader playing nurse!
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	9. Chapter 9

Dinner was awkward to say the less.

When you arrived everyone was already dinning and you went to sit down in a smaller table with Glenn, Maggie and her sister, and the guy you thought was the younger Greene’s boyfriend. You made sure your seat has its back to Hershel, you were grateful he had helped Daryl but you didn’t feel like talking to him or having him scold you or anything.

“Dad says he’ll be alright,” Maggie told you quietly.

“Yeah…” You nodded, giving her a grateful smile. “He’s pretty banged up, though.”

The only highlight of the tense dinner was when Glenn and Maggie began passing notes to each other under the table, not as subtly as Glenn probably thought he was being. Beth and you looked at each other, smirking.

Once dinner was over you helped clean the table and headed back to check on Daryl. Carol had gone to bring him some dinner and you arrived at the same time she walked out of the room.

“He’s awake. Your dog won’t leave his side.” She told you.

“Probably he’s begging him for food now and Daryl’ll give him half his dinner.” You couldn’t help your small, fond smile.

“He has a good heart.” Carol nodded, smiling, though her eyes watered. “Ended up like that looking for my little girl.”

You reached out to take her hand. “He told us where he found the doll, we’ll check it tomorrow.”

“I don’t want anyone else getting hurt on this search…” She said weakly, a tear sliding down her cheek.

“We won’t. We’ll be more careful. Promise.”

Carol said nothing to that, she gave your hand a squeeze and walked away.

You walked into the room and saw Daryl propped up against the headboard with some pillows. On one side he had the trail with his dinner and at the other was Cole, to whom Daryl was giving some of the food. You shook your head, smiling. You knew it.

“How are you feeling?” You asked, sitting down next to Cole. Daryl shrugged. You knew he must be hurting but you felt he wouldn’t say it aloud.

You stayed silent while he ate his dinner, wondering if you should leave him alone. Maybe he didn’t want the company. When he finished his dinner you took the tray and got up to take it to the kitchen. “You should rest.”

“I’m bored of it already.” He grumbled.

“I could stay for a bit if you want.” You offered tentatively. Daryl looked at you for a second before averting his eyes again and finally he nodded once. You left the tray on the bedside table and sat down on the bed. “I can gossip about Glenn and Maggie.” Daryl shrugged and you didn’t say anything else.

“What about them? “He finally said and you smirked.

"There’s something going on between them. Pretty sure right now they’re getting busy with each other in the barn.”

“Hershel must be happy.” Daryl and you chuckled quietly.

“I bet.”

Silence fell between you two for a little while. Daryl shifted to lie down on the bed, wincing and letting out a soft whimper, and he curled onto his good side, his back to you. You bit your lip to stop yourself from asking him if he hurt. It was obvious he did and it would only make him grumpy.

“I dreamed with Merle,” Daryl whispered. “I hallucinated him when I was out there. And now I dreamed with him, about when we were kids.”

“Was it a good dream?” You asked softly.

“Nah. But I liked seeing him.”

Daryl had loved Merle, no matter what, and he missed him. Your heart ached for him and you reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly. Daryl stiffed at the contact before relaxing again.

“It wasn’t long after my mother died.” Daryl surprised you by talking about his dream. “Merle was mad at me cos I was a little idiot and I’d told him maybe mum wasn’t dead cos I hadn’t seen her…I was dumb like that when I was little..” If you’d thought your heart couldn’t hurt more for Daryl, you’d been wrong. You still had your hand on his shoulder and you began to brush your fingers over his skin ever so slightly, but Daryl stiffed again and you stopped.

“And Merle left and I don’t know where he went or what he did but he ended up in juvie. And when dad came he was so angry, he always was, angry and drunk. Took it out on me, since Merle wasn’t around. Was a walker in the dream, the damn bastard, only good thing.” Daryl spat, shaking slightly, you weren’t sure if in anger or something else.

You couldn’t find the right words and so you stayed silent. Putting two and two together, you already suspected Daryl’s childhood hadn’t been a dream one, but you were heartbroken by what he was telling you. You wanted to punch his asshole of a father and make him go down to his knees and apologize to Daryl.

You wanted to curl up next to Daryl, wrap your arms around him and hold him close. Hope it’d bring him some comfort. But you knew Daryl and you weren’t certain you’d be welcome, probably you’d make him uncomfortable and angry. Still, you couldn’t help but lean over to kiss his shoulder softly, above one of the scars. Daryl tensed, flinching slightly, and you heard him gasping softly. “Sorry.” You whispered, pulling back.

“Merle…the one that I hallucinated…told me none but him cares about me…and he’s not around anymore, so…” Daryl began talking quietly again.

“That’s bullshit, and Merle knows it, all the Merles, the real, the hallucinated and the one from dreamland!” You were upset thinking Daryl might be feeling like that on top of everything. “And you know it, right?”

Daryl just shrugged. “It ain’t like nobody likes me much. Redneck trash, I know that’s what they think.”

“Hey, don’t say that, they don’t think that.” Maybe they had thought like that but now you thought they were starting to see Daryl’s value. “And I care about you, alright? Both Cole and I. And Carol, she’s worried about you, she cares. We do. So don’t speak like that.”

“Carol said I’m a good man…” Daryl murmured quietly, turning to lie on his back.

“You are.” You assured him, glad Carol had told him something like that, you hoped it’d help him believe it. He didn’t say anything else, though.

You reached out to take his hand but stopped, you didn’t want to push his boundaries more and make him uncomfortable. It seemed Daryl noticed, and slowly he began to inch his hand closer to yours but stopped before touching it. You smiled softly, and placed your hand on his, lacing your fingers when he didn’t flinch.

“Don’t know what hurts more, getting shot an arrow or a bullet…” Daryl groaned, closing his eyes. “I think the arrow’s winning.” You could bet, after all the bullet had graced him while the arrow had pierced through his side. You didn’t want to think of how close he had been to die.

“And falling down a ravine didn’t make it better, did it?” You added, he didn’t complain but probably every one of his bones and muscles were screaming to him.

“Not much.” Daryl chuckled softly, wincing as he did so.

“You gotta be more careful, you told me to be careful and you end like this…you scared me…” You said quietly.

“Ain’t my fault the damn horse threw me,” Daryl grumbled.

“I know.” You began to trace soft circles over his knuckles with your thumb. You still felt guilty.

“I’ll only ride bikes for now on.”

“You’ve been riding for long?”

“Since I was big enough to do it without falling down, was in a club with Merle.”

“I’ve never ridden on a motorcycle…you gotta give me a ride sometime.”

“Alright…when we find Sophia.”

“And Hershel kicks us out of here.” You chuckled humorlessly.

“He’s gonna kick us out?” Daryl opened his eyes to look at you.

“I don’t know but he’s not happy with us…” You let out a guilty sigh. “Maggie’s trying to convince him otherwise, though…she better manages if she wants to keep Glenn around.”

Daryl just hummed, seeming thoughtful. Merle’s words, or rather Daryl’s thoughts must still be troubling him, and he was obviously worried about still not having found Sophia, and now you had added the possibility of having to leave the Greene’s farm in not too long. You wished you could make him feel a bit better or at least less down, to take his mind away from the pain and worry.

“Only good thing about this is that I got to see you without your shirt on.” You dared to joke, Daryl seemed more down than you’d ever seen him and it made your heart hurt, so if at least you could turn him flustered and have him thinking in something else, you would. “I still think you’re pretty hot and I’m not drunk.”

“What?” Daryl looked at you with wide, shocked eyes, snapping his hand from yours as if you had burnt him. You smiled when you saw the adorable blush that spread through his cheeks, you still couldn’t believe he got so flustered with stuff like that, but you loved it. “Stop it.” He grumbled, frowning.

“Okay, okay.” You chuckled softly, smiling to him, and Daryl seemed to relax a bit, or maybe he was too tired to snap. He looked beat. “Close those pretty eyes and sleep, you need it.” You had to bit your lip so as not to laugh when Daryl blushed even more, grumbling something you didn’t catch as he curled onto his side, but he did close his pretty eyes.

You got up and looked at Cole, who had been curled up at Daryl’s feet but that scooted closer to his side now that you’d moved. “What do you wanna do, Cole?”

“He can stay if he wants…”

Daryl shifted so he could run his fingers through Cole’s hair and you had to stop yourself from smiling. Of course if you asked Daryl if he wanted Cole to stay with him he’d say he didn’t care, but you knew better. He was hurting and weak, and maybe Cole could bring him some comfort. You were worried your dog may want to get up at some point and go looking for you, though, waking Daryl. And if he didn’t find you around and was in a house he didn’t know, he might get anxious.

Cole shifted even closer until his head was on Daryl’s lap and he looked at him with worried eyes. It reminded you to when you got that horrible flu years ago and Cole was always with you in bed, keeping you warm and comforted. Maybe he could stay with Daryl and you could leave the door a bit open in case he wanted to get out, and maybe you could curl up in one of the sofas so Cole’d find you easily…though Hershel might not be too happy about that, but after all Lori was staying with Carl…

“Alright you two, enjoy finally having a real bed.” You scratched Cole behind the ears. “Lucky you.”

“Shoot yourself an arrow too so you end up in one if you want it so much.” Daryl joked darkly.

“Mean.”

He gave you a crooked smile and you smiled back before wishing him a good night and leaving the room.

You found Maggie sitting down on a sofa, her elbows rested on her knees and her face hidden on her hands, seeming worried.

“You okay?”

Maggie looked up at you and nodded, not seeming very convincing.

“Thought you would be having fun with Glenn…”

“Yeah…not that much fun…”

“You two had an argument or something?” You sat down next to her and Maggie groaned.

“Don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay…”

“I wasn’t sure if you were going to sleep in there or what.” Maggie nodded towards the bedroom.

“Told you, he isn’t my boyfriend or anything. He rather snuggles with my dog.” You joked and Maggie snorted quietly. “I was wondering if maybe I could sleep in one of the sofas…if that’d be alright.”

“Okay, that way you’ll be around if he needs anything. Patricia is a good woman but she’s not really in the mood to be a nurse for all of you after…well…” Maggie trailed off. Yes, after her husband died to bring the supplies Carl needed…

“Thanks.” That’s all you could awkwardly say. “And also…would it be alright if I take a horse again tomorrow to look for Sophia? We have a lead on where she might be.”

“Okay.” Maggie nodded again. “I can go with you if you want.”

“That’d be really good, thank you.” You weren’t sure of how many of your people would be joining you.

“Alright, good night then, see you in the morning.”

“Night.”

Maggie gave you a tense smile and left. You curled up on the sofa, closed your eyes, and tried to sleep.

*

When you woke up it was dark around you, but a glance at the clock on the wall, which surprisingly still worked, told you the sun would come up soon. You got up, stretched and walked to the window. You could see the sky at the east beginning to clear. You had to admit it, the farm and its surroundings were beautiful, almost as if the world around them hadn’t gone to hell. How you wished Hershel would allow you all to stay. You turned around when you heard soft footsteps approaching and found Cole waggling his tail at you.

“Good morning. Glad to see you haven’t forgotten about me.” You patted Cole’s head and scratched him behind the ears. You walked to Daryl’s room and peered inside from the slightly open door. It was dark inside and you couldn’t hear any movement, so you thought he was still asleep and you closed the door so he could sleep undisturbed for a little longer.

Maggie walked down the stairs, seeming half asleep still. “Morning.” She rasped. “Want some tea or coffee? There’s still some left.”

“That’d be so good, thank you.” You followed her into the kitchen and helped her make breakfast. You ate in silence, Maggie seeming as lost in thought as you.

“I’m gonna bring Daryl some breakfast before we leave.” You told her as you got a tray ready.

“Okay, he has to take the antibiotics too.” Maggie instructed.

When you walked into the dark room, though, Daryl was still asleep and you didn’t have the heart to wake him up. He had to rest. You placed the tray on the nightstand and also the box of antibiotics. You were sure Carol would come to check on Daryl later and she’d remind him to eat and take the pills.

You glanced at Daryl again. You could barely make his features in the dark but you thought he still seemed weak. Hershel had said he’d recover nice but you didn’t think you’d stop worrying until he got up from the bed. Leaning over, you brushed your knuckles over his cheekbone ever so slightly, realizing once again how much you had come to care for him. Daryl’s eyes blinked open at that and he looked at you drowsily and confused. Damn it. You hadn’t meant to wake him.

“Hey, go back to sleep.” You whispered.

“Sophia?” Daryl muttered, seeming not totally awake.

“I’m going to look for her now.”

“Alone?”

“No, Maggie’s coming too. Come on, go back to sleep.” You could see Daryl was fighting to keep his eyes open. “I brought you some breakfast if you wake up hungry, you have to eat and also take your antibiotics.”

“Alright.” Daryl mumbled and his eyes closed again.

In the end Rick joined you too, you guessed he felt like you all weren’t doing enough, and also Andrea, she felt guilty for having shot Daryl. Taking all the horses besides the one that had thrown Daryl, you all rode to where Daryl had found the doll. You found nothing besides some dead walkers, but no sight of Sophia. It’d be so useful to know how to track like Daryl, so you could follow the little girl’s trail, but not even Rick could find her trail. He decided it was best to split up in pairs and look around the area, and so he went with Andrea and you went with Maggie.

“I don’t know why I keep going out looking for Sophia, I can’t track for shit, she could be here and I wouldn’t find her.” You complained.

“Come on, we’re doing our best…” Maggie kicked your foot from her horse.

After hours of searching without finding anything, it was hard to stay hopeful. Cole sniffed bushes from time to time, but you didn’t think he was following any trail. You could only hope Rick and Andrea were having more luck. You found it a bit strange that Glenn hadn’t decided to join Maggie, maybe they’d really had an argument. You didn’t want to ask, though, didn’t want to upset Maggie more or make her angry.

“Did you talk with your father about letting us stay?” You asked her.

“Didn’t have the chance…”

“He can’t send us away Maggie, he can’t.” You stopped your horse to look at her seriously. “You don’t know how that is, you haven’t seen it. There’s no safe place, they’re everywhere.” You swallowed hard, trying not to let your emotions overcome you. “There’s nothing left, we came from the CDC and the doctor there told us there’s no cure, nothing, everything’s gone, and then he almost made us blow up. I don’t know where we could go, I don’t know where we could be safe, and looking for a place like that we ended up stuck on a road with a herd of monsters and we lost a little girl, and Carl got shot, and now Daryl’s hurt too…we can’t leave, we can’t go back to that…”

“Hey, hey, stop.” Maggie nudged your foot again. “I’m going to try okay…I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try.”

“Okay, okay, thank you…sorry I just exploded…” You tried to get a hold of yourself, embarrassed. You hadn’t realized everything you’d been bottling in.

“It’s ok…” Maggie gave you a small smile. “Come on, let’s see if the others had had more luck.”

They hadn’t, and you all rode back to camp in silence, a feeling of defeat over all of you. Carol was sat down in front of the RV, Sophia’s doll on her lap, and she looked at you when she saw you had come back. You dropped your gaze, unable to look at her.

“I can go to talk to her.” Rick offered.

“No, no I’ll go…” Taking a deep breath, you walked purposely towards Carol, or as purposely as you could.

“Nothing?” Carol asked you weakly.

“I’ll try again tomorrow…”

Carol nodded once and looked down as if trying to control her emotions. “It’s okay, thank you.” Cole whined and head-butted Carol’s hand until she patted his head.

“You want to see Daryl, uh?” She murmured to your dog before looking up to you. Her eyes were wet but you knew she was trying to stay strong. “He’s better I think, or at least more awake. Meaning he’s all bored and cranky. I made him eat and stay in bed.” She gave you a weak smile.

“He’s gonna be so angry when he knows we didn’t find her…” You let out a sigh.

“You’re doing everything you can, and for that I’m grateful.” Carol swallowed hard as if trying her best not to cry. “Come on, get your dog to see Daryl, keep him company.”

*

Daryl was sick of being on that bed, doing nothing. He should be out with Y/N, tracking Sophia. She had been gone for hours and she still wasn’t back, Daryl needed to know if she had found the little girl or not. She couldn’t be far from when he found her doll. But Daryl wasn’t delusional enough to think he could have gone with Y/N, just shifting in the bed hurt, pain shooting through his side, and sometimes when he moved his head he still felt dizzy.

Hershel had gone to check on him, saying he was doing well even though Daryl hurt everywhere. He had removed the bandaged that he’d wrapped around his head, saying the wound would heal better that way though Daryl must keep it clean.

Carol had come to visit him too, bringing him food and sitting down on a chair to keep him company. At first Daryl had snapped at her and he had regretted it almost instantly, but Carol hadn’t gotten angry. She’d called his bullshit, though, but she had stayed with him nonetheless.

She had been telling him things about Sophia, and Daryl’d felt like someone was punching him when he saw how much Carol was hurting, but he couldn’t find words of comfort. Couldn’t find Sophia, either. He didn’t know why Carol even talked to him, she really seemed to care for him as Y/N had said, no matter Daryl came back day after day without having found her little girl. Carol always had a thank you and a smile for him.

Daryl had never understood why Y/N had decided to become his friend, and now neither did he understand why Carol seemed to have decided it too. Either way, if he said he didn’t enjoy the company of the woman, he’d be lying.

Carol had told him not only Maggie had gone with Y/N and Cole to look for Sophia but also Rick and Andrea, as if she could read his mind and she knew he’d worried about Y/N going alone and something happening to her and the dog, after walkers almost ate him.

There was a knock on his door and then Y/N and the dog walked in. Daryl found himself smiling, though it turned into a wince when Cole jumped onto the bed, trying to lick his face, until he calmed down and lied next to him.

“Sorry.” Y/N chuckled, giving him an apologetic smile. “You look better.”

“Feel like shit still.”

Somehow Daryl felt he could tell her that and she wouldn’t judge him, she wouldn’t think him weak. She had been at his side when the doctor patched him up and then she’d been keeping him company during most part of the night. He’d felt so weak and so stupid, wanting her close, holding her hand even, but he couldn’t help it. Everything hurt and he felt like shit, but Y/N and Cole made it better. She had been teasing him again, though, but Daryl had learned not to take that too seriously, even though it embarrassed him and made his pulse speed up at the same time.

He hadn’t been able to stop the funny twirls in his stomach at her words, the same that he got sometimes when she was around, or the way in which his heart skipped a beat when she had kissed his shoulder. He still felt he was being an idiot most of the time when she was around…but it didn’t seem to matter, he knew he didn’t want to push her away.

She had been so worried about him, Daryl couldn’t believe it. He didn’t think someone had worried like that about him, ever. It had made him feel warm and cared for, something he wasn’t used to but that now, with Y/N, the dog and also Carol around, he seemed to feel more often than not. He didn’t know what to make of it.

Y/N sat down on the bed next to him but looked down and away from him, her face dark. She opened her mouth as if she were going to say something, but she closed it again. She didn’t need to speak, Daryl knew what she was going to say.

“We’ll find her.”

Daryl assured her, his hand moving to hold hers almost of its own accord.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter Daryl got hurt looking for Sophia and the reader has alternated between keeping an eye on him and going looking for Sophia. but she hasn’t had much luck at it…

In just a day, Hershel declared Daryl good enough to leave the house, though he still had to rest on his tent and shouldn’t move too much or he might pop a stitch. Daryl was recovering fast, sure, but you also knew Hershel didn’t like to have your people in his house. Carl was on his feet too and running around already, to everyone’s relief.

You were cleaning the stables and tending to the horses, all of you were working around the farm to try and gain Hershel to your side, and you were trying to make up for having taken the horses too. As soon as you finished, you intended to go check on Daryl. Cole had been with you for a while, but now he had disappeared and you had a feeling of where he might be.

Your guess had been right, you saw him running away from Daryl’s tent to catch a small stick that had landed not too far from the tent and which probably Daryl had thrown him from inside. Cole took the stick and walked into the tent, you behind him.

“Hi, there.” You greeted, kneeling down inside the tent. Daryl gave you a nod and a hum, taking the stick and scratching Cole’s head, who just seemed to realize you were there, barking as a greeting and licking your hand. You noticed a book on the ground next to Daryl and you picked it up. “What you got there?”

“Andrea gave it to me earlier.”

You read the summary, it seemed to be some sort of detectives and crimes thing. You were pretty sure you had read through all of Dale’s books but it seemed you had missed that one. It seemed like a good way to pass the time.

“Want me to read it to you?”

“I can read it myself.” Daryl snapped.

“I know.” You rolled your eyes and nudged his leg with your foot. “I just thought it could be fun. But whatever.”

Daryl glanced at you for a split of a second, fidgeting with the stick he had been throwing to Cole, before lying down on his sleeping bag.

“Okay…read it if you want…” He said quietly. You opened the book and started reading it aloud.

You didn’t stop until it was time for dinner, almost having gone through the whole book.

“We’ll finish it tomorrow, alright?”

*

Next morning you were all having breakfast outside your tents, Daryl included. He looked so much better than a couple of days ago, though you knew his wound was still bothering him. Breakfast was delicious, a scramble made by Carol with fresh eggs, and you tried to enjoy it despite the tense and silent atmosphere around you. Whatever was going in on in the group, you didn’t really feel like getting involved, you just wanted to stay focused on Sophia’s search.

“Guys…” You hadn’t finished your scramble when Glenn began to speak, looking nervous. “So…there are walkers in the barn.”

You couldn’t believe it until you saw it, but it was true, you could see a group of walkers locked inside the barn and you couldn’t figure out why in the world would Hershel keep them there, and you had the feeling that asking him wouldn’t end up good. Apparently, according to Dale who somehow knew it, Hershel thought those walkers were his sick family and friends and therefore he wouldn’t kill them. You already had told Maggie about the CDC and Rick had done the same to Hershel, waiting for a cure was delusional, yet it didn’t seem like it would change the Greene’s mind.

A fight broke between Shane and Rick, since one wanted to clear the barn while Rick thought that would only make Hershel kick you out of the farm. You agreed with Rick, you were already on thin ice with Hershel, but living next to a barn full of walkers didn’t sound like the safest thing.

You could leave the farm, but you hated the idea of going back to the road without a destination, probably only to find that Fort Benning and everything else were gone forever, you couldn’t be sure you would find another heaven like that farm. Besides, you couldn’t leave without Sophia.

Turned out it seemed Shane could, as he thought there was no way you would find Sophia by now, much less alive. You knew how many days had passed, you knew how dangerous the world was, and if you had been less enraged at Shane for saying something like that in front of Carol and seeing tears coming to her eyes, you might have thought he had a point.

“Shut your mouth!” You snapped at Shane.

“I’m close to finding this girl. I just found her damn doll two days ago!” Daryl came from behind you to get on Shane’s face.

“You found her doll, Daryl. That’s what you did. You found a doll.” Shane snapped back. “I’m just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it’s in the first 48 hours.”

Both men were glaring at each other and you were sure a fight was going to break between them so you stepped between them to try and stop them even though you wanted to punch Shane yourself, you didn’t want Daryl getting hurt and worsening his injuries, and if those two started fighting probably the situation would escalate too much. Rick came to stand at your side, trying to calm them down too.

“Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction.”

Daryl tried to throw himself at Shane at that but the others rushed to try and pull both men apart. You couldn’t believe Shane would say something like that after all Daryl had done trying to find Sophia. You saw red, anger rising inside you, and you went for Shane, pushing him as hard as you could.

“Y/N!” Lori, who had been dragging Shane away from Daryl, looked at you wide-eyed but you didn’t even hear her.

“What the hell did you just say?!” You yelled at Shane, pushing him again. He was looking at you seeming too surprised to do anything. “You haven’t done shit to try and find Sophia, Daryl’s been there every day and organizing everything, so shut your mouth or I’ll make you shut it!”

“Why don’t we all calm down?” Andrea dragged you away from Shane and you didn’t resist, you could hear the walkers banging the doors of the barn, excited by the commotion going outside.

The discussion kept going about what to do, Dale seemed sure Hershel would never let you clear the barn, but Rick told everybody he would talk to Hershel. It wasn’t like you could do much else, if you cleared those walkers you would not only be kicked out of the farm but also couldn’t keep looking for Sophia from a safe place.

You saw Daryl storming away and you followed him. “Hey, hey wait.” Daryl didn’t stop, heading to his tent, and you tried to keep his pace. “Shane was talking bullshit.”

“Leave me alone, Y/N.” Daryl snapped and you tried not to take it to heart, knowing he was upset. Maybe he needed to be alone and so you stopped following him.

There were people on watch on the barn while Rick tried to sort things out with Hershel. Shane was one of them and you didn’t feel like facing him again so you walked away. You looked for Maggie, wanting to confront her about the barn. You tried to think about what to say so your temper wouldn’t get the best of you and you ended up lashing at her instead of just trying to have an actual talk.

“Maggie, hey, hum…let’s talk.” You maybe sounded more demanding than you had intended, but you didn’t think it was a bad start, you weren’t snapping or anything.

“You all know about the barn.” Maggie rolled her eyes before glaring at you. “I knew that idiot couldn’t have his mouth shut!”

“What did you expect him to do, we sleep there! We could be walkers dinner at any moment!” Your resolution to try to stay calm was soon gone. “How insane is to keep walkers in the barn?!”

“You know nothing!” Maggie snapped.

“No, you know nothing!” You snapped back. “You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen! I told you about the CDC already, your father is delusional thinking they’re sick people waiting for a cure…there’s no cure, there’s nothing, they’re dead!”

“You don’t understand it!” By know you knew Maggie’s temper was usually at par with yours, she’d stood her ground in your previous arguments, so you were shocked to notice her eyes watering. “Those you call monsters are my family!”

“They are people no more, they are dead…think about it and I know you’ll see it.” Your voice had softened, you didn’t have the heart to yell at her anymore. “It’s dangerous. We all have lost people…they’re gone, those are just bodies. And they aren’t coming back.”

Maggie said nothing, just shook her head and you didn’t see a point on keep pushing it. You could just hope Rick could make Hershel understand it, but you weren’t hopeful at all.

“Hey…Glenn did what he did to protect us, but he’s all head over heels with you.” You said softly. “Don’t go hard on him.”

“We’ll see about that…”

*

You were throwing sticks at Cole, not knowing what to do with yourself, when you saw Carol approaching you. She seemed upset and like she had been crying so you rushed to her, your head full of the worst scenarios about Sophia.

“What’s wrong?!”

“It’s Daryl…” Carol said and you blinked in surprise at that. “I found him on the stables, trying to get a horse ready to go looking for Sophia, but you know he’s not good enough, he’s still hurt.” You shook your head at his stubbornness. “And I’m grateful he’s looking but he already got hurt, I didn’t want him getting worse…he didn’t like it when I told him…”

You could imagine and you reached out to take Carol’s hand. “Don’t be upset, he’s an idiot sometimes.”

“I know.” Carol gave you a sad smile. “But he’s a good man and I don’t want him hurting himself…can you check on him so he doesn’t try to go again? Maybe you’ll have better luck than me.”

You let out a sigh. Babysitting Daryl when he was upset and angered didn’t sound like the best plan, but you were concerned Carol was right and Daryl might try again to go looking for Sophia when he was still recovering.

“Alright…maybe my dog will have better luck than I.”

You found Daryl inside his tent, fidgeting with an arrow, stabbing it in an out of one of the tent’s nets…it didn’t seem he was in the best mood, and he glared at you when he noticed you approaching but you kept going anyway, crouching down and getting inside the tent.

“Get out!” Daryl didn’t lose time to snap at you.

“Tell me that at least the horse you were trying to take wasn’t the one who threw you.” You tried to stay unfazed by his anger. “I mean, I’m not sure if you’d be sensible like that considering you just tried to leave, alone, riding a horse while still having stitches on your side, you know.”

“Leave me alone.” He growled.

“Okay. But if you try to do something like that again I’m not letting you.”

“I don’t need your permission or nothing, girl, you ain’t gonna babysit me, now leave me the hell alone!” Daryl threw away the arrow he had been playing with, angry, and Cole barked excitedly and ran to pick up the arrow as if he thought Daryl was playing with him. You rolled your eyes, maybe those two got along so well because they were idiots sometimes.

“You worried Carol, Daryl, she’s afraid you’ll hurt yourself…”

“I ain’t hurting myself! That bitch should be worrying about her damn daughter and not about me!”

“What the hell did you just call her?!” Now you were angry. “Daryl Dixon you might be my friend but if I ever hear you calling another woman that, I’m gonna smack you in the head so hard it’ll be worse than when Andrea shoot you.”

That seemed to silence Daryl, if only because he was surprised at your outburst. He averted his eyes from you and began fidgeting with the arrow that Cole had brought back, slightly chewed.

“Don’t know why she’d care anyway…” He mumbled.

“Because you’ve been looking for her little girl non-stop, giving her hope…because you’re a good man, Daryl, even though sometimes you’re a prick. So yes, she cares for you and doesn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“I wasn’t gonna hurt myself,” Daryl grumbled again and you didn’t bother to reply, let him have that. “Carol said we don’t know if we’re gonna find Sophia…she gave up…”

“She didn’t, it’s just…” You let out a sigh and flopped down to sat down on the floor of the tent. “I guess she’s trying to be ready in case the worse might happen or in case we have to leave…”

“She doesn’t think I can find her.”

“It’s not that.” You nudged his foot with yours gently. “If-when we find Sophia, it’ll be thanks to you.”

“Not if I’m here sitting on my ass doing nothing.” He sounded angry again. “I have to go looking for her, none else is gonna do it, not now with the barn and all.”

“Yell all you want but I’m not letting you go, you’re recovering.” Daryl seemed about to snap but you kept talking before he could. “I’ll go, okay? Right now, I’ll go looking for Sophia.”

Daryl seemed to think it for a moment and then he nodded reluctantly. “Are you taking Maggie with you?”

“Well…I’m not sure if she’s angry at me or not…” You hadn’t talked to her again. “Besides, she left with Glenn on a run. I’ll go by myself.”

“You shouldn’t go alone.” Daryl surprised you, you had thought he’d be rushing you to leave.

“Don’t think none is about to join me…” You shrugged, Daryl was right, everyone seemed too busy right now.

“I would.”

“You’re recovering.” You said again, making Daryl roll his eyes.

“You won’t go alone.”

“Okay…what if I try and get some of the others to help me with the search?” Only a couple of people were watching the barn, the others should be free to join the search and you planned to make them feel as guilty as possible if they didn’t volunteer.

“Alright…But if they don’t then I’m going with you.”

“We’ll see about that…” Daryl seemed mostly okay but you could see some blood on his shirt from when he had hurt himself trying to saddle the horse, he still should take it easy. “And no horses this time.”

Daryl said nothing to that, just shrugged and kept fidgeting with the arrow. You reached out to pull up his shirt, wanting to check on his wound, and Daryl flinched away from your hand, wincing as he did so.

“Sorry.” You rushed to apologize, pulling your hand off him. “You’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine.” He grumbled, though she frowned as he looked at the bloodstains as if noticing it for the first time.

“You might have popped a stitch…can I check it?” You reached out again but didn’t touch him until Daryl nodded. You lifted his shirt and carefully removed the soiled bandage to reveal his wound. It had bled a bit but it didn’t look bad. “I don’t know…maybe Hershel should check it…”

“No.”

“Alright, let me clean it a bit then.” You had ‘borrowed’ some disinfectant, gauzes, antibiotics and things like that from Hershel’s cabinet, in case he sent you all away. You felt bad about it, but it’d be worse if you were on the road again and didn’t have medical supplies.

Daryl raised an eyebrow at you when he saw you taking out of your bag some gauze and disinfectant, as if guessing where you had taken it from, but he said nothing. Pouring some disinfectant into the gauze, you cleaned the wound and applied a fresh bandage.

“There you go.” You finished cleaning and rebandaging him. You bit your lip thinking about how the arrow had gone through his side, impaling him. It was a wonder he was not only alive and recovering so fast but also how he had managed to go back to the farm all by himself. You didn’t want to think how close he had been of dying.

“Thanks,” Daryl said without looking at you and you both stayed silent for a while, Daryl back at fidgeting with the arrow and you busying yourself stroking Cole’s fur. Maybe it was time for you to leave, but you kept catching Daryl giving you side glances and you waited for him to speak.

“When you went for Shane…” He finally began, eyes trained on the ground. “I hadn’t seen you that angry since you threatened that doc with an ax.”

“Yeah, well, Shane was spitting a lot of bullshit.” You were still angry at him. “I can’t believe he’d say that about Sophia in front of Carol. I can’t believe he said those stupid things about you, either!” You felt like punching him even though you knew you wouldn’t stand a chance against Shane. “You know it was bullshit, right?” Daryl just shrugged, avoiding your gaze. “Well, it was.”

“Thanks.” He whispered, eyes still down.

“You’re my friend I’m going to stand for you, and Shane was a prick. I’m not letting anyone talk bullshit about you.” You stated, unashamed, you didn’t know when you had become so protective over Daryl but there it was. “You’re a prick sometimes too but I would never smack you, no matter what I said before, I won’t. But I’ll smack Shane if he ever says something like that again.”

His eyes snapped up to look at you at that, seeming surprised, and then his lips curled up into a lopsided, small smile. He should smile more often. He looked down quickly, blushing. “Thanks.”

“That thing he said about you wearing geek ears…was that true?” You wanted to have him talking about something else and you were genuinely curious. “Why?” You asked when he nodded.

“Thought it might mistake the smell to other geeks.”

“That’s so smart…you’re so smart.” You were always amazed at how resourceful and quick at thinking Daryl was.

“Stop.” He grumbled, blushing even more.

“But it’s true!”

“I don’t know if it works or not.”

“Smart anyway.”

Silence fell between you both until Daryl broke it again. “Shane’s lying about Otis, I think he left the man as bait or something like that.”

“Why?” You didn’t doubt Daryl but that sounded too bad even for Shane.

“His story doesn’t add up.” Daryl didn’t elaborate more and you didn’t ask. You knew how observant and smart he was, so if he was suspicious about Shane then probably he had a reason and wasn’t mistaken. The idea was too horrible to think about it, though. “I ain’t saying anything, the Greene’s would kick us out of here if they knew.”

“Hershel might kick us out anyway.” You let out a sigh. “Rick’s talking with him…I’m gonna see if he’s done to ask him to come looking for Sophia with me.”

“Alright.”

“You gotta apologize to Carol, okay?” You reminded him and Daryl shrugged.

“How?” He murmured sheepishly, sounding so childish it was adorable.

“Try saying sorry.” You retorted and Daryl rolled his eyes.

You kneeled up but before you crawled out of the tent you leaned over to kiss Daryl’s cheek, you just felt like it. Daryl looked at you with wide, surprised eyes before frowning.

“What was that for?”

You just shrugged, giving him a small smile before leaving his tent.

Rick found you before you found him, walking towards you with a map on his hand. “It’s time we go back to the search, come with me?”

“I was just looking for you to ask you the same…did you talk with Hershel? Is he kicking us out?”

“We’re not leaving.” Rick didn’t hold your gaze and it wasn’t exactly the answer to what you were asking, but for now, it’d have to be enough, he was already unfolding the map before you could say anything. “So what do you think, should we check this area?”

“Maybe…I could ask Daryl, he’ll know what’s the best plan.”

“Alright, you do that and I go see if someone else’s free to join us.” Rick patted your shoulder and headed away, and you went back to Daryl’s tent.

He was outside, pacing back and forth as he glanced nervously at the RV where you knew Carol was. You couldn’t help your small smile, he was so cute sometimes. “Just go and say sorry,” you said as you placed a hand on his arm. He flinched but relaxed when he saw it was you. “She’s your friend and cares about you, she’ll forgive you if you apologize.”

Daryl shrugged as if trying to show he didn’t care, but you knew better. You unfolded the map and pointed at the area Rick was telling you. “So Rick thinks we could check this area, we’re leaving in about an hour, what you think?”

“Yeah…” Daryl nodded. “We should check this other again too. I’ll go too.”

“Not happening.”

“I’m fine, I can walk so I can search for her.” Daryl rolled his eyes, seeming exasperated again. He was just so damn stubborn.

“Apologize to Carol and then we’ll see.”

You went looking for Rick but couldn’t find him anywhere. He couldn’t have just disappeared in a moment. You noticed Glenn and Maggie on the stairs of the porch, seeming to have made up, at least that was good.

“Have you seen Rick?” You asked when you approached them. “We were supposed to go looking for Sophia.”

“No, sorry.”

You let out a sigh and sat down to wait for him. Time passed and he still wasn’t showing up, and you didn’t know if you should be angry at him or worried. You noticed Daryl and Carol approaching, those two seeming to have made up too and you couldn’t help your smile.

“Weren’t we leaving?” Daryl asked, annoyed.

“Don’t know where Rick is.”

“Fine, we leave without him.” He scoffed.

Before any of you could say anything else, Shane approached you carrying a big bag full of guns which he began passing to everyone, saying how you needed to secure the place and deal with that barn before it was too late, ignoring Maggie and Lori asking him to stop. You wanted the farm to be safe, sure, but doing what Shane intended to do would just cause more trouble and Hershel would never forgive it.

Cole growled, nervous, and you grabbed him by his collar, trying to calm him.

“This is not a good idea.” You grabbed Daryl’s arm with your free hand when he took one of the rifles, you thought he might yank his arm free but he didn’t, turning to look at you. “Hershel will kick us out for sure.”

“What the hell is that?”

You all followed Shane’s gaze to find Hershel and Rick walking towards the barn and you couldn’t believe your eyes but they had a walker with them in some sort of lash, as if they were walking it to the barn…did Hershel collect them there? What was that? You hadn’t thought the man insane, just delusional, but this was too much.

Shane ran to them, yelling at them, you all running behind…and then the storm began. Shane was out of control, yelling and shooting at the walker, and before any of you could do anything he had opened the barn, walkers stumbling out.

“Y/N, don’t let the dog go to them!” Daryl warned you while he aimed the rifle and shoot, along with Shane, Andrea, Rick, T-Dog, even Glenn, murdering the Greene’s family in front of their eyes. It had to be done, you knew it, those weren’t people, they were monsters, but the Greene’s looked so broken you couldn’t look while the monsters dropped dead.

And when you thought things couldn’t get worse, they did. A last, little walker stumbled out of the barn.

Sophia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw…you know what’s coming :( Do you think Daryl’d keep himself away from the reader and the dog? Or would he look for comfort on them? We’ll see…
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter reader babysat Daryl while he was being all grumpy about not being able to go out looking for Sophia because he was still recovering…then Glenn said everyone the Greene’s kept walkers in the barn…Shane opened it…and you know what happened :(

Daryl stabbed his knife into the wood of the log he was sitting on, again and again, but it wasn’t enough. He got up and kicked the big log, grunting at the pain that shot through his side but he welcomed it.

The little girl was dead. She had been dead from the beginning and he had been a damn fool, going looking for her, thinking that he was going to find her and what? Be a hero? Him? He was nothing. He should have found her that first day, the day she ran away. He was supposed to be good at tracking, wasn’t him? But he had lost her trail. He was good for nothing.

How he could have been such an idiot.

Daryl kicked the log again, blinking and sinking his nails into his palms hard when he felt tears burning in his eyes. Why did he care anyway, Sophia wasn’t her kid, it shouldn’t hurt like this, but it did. He had been a fool thinking he could find Sophia and he’d been a fool letting himself care for those people, for that damn dog and Y/N, for Carol, and now it seemed too late to stop, no matter he’d tried to distance himself from everyone.

Carol had come, acting all like she cared for him, like he hadn’t failed her, like he hadn’t lost her little girl. Daryl had lashed out, making her cry and flinch away from him, and when Daryl thought about the things he’d said to her, it was like a punch to the gut.

But he hadn’t wanted to hear her, he hadn’t wanted her close, nor Carol nor anyone. He didn’t want to care anymore. He wanted to be alone again. It was better. And his brother had been right, he was nothing for those people, not until they needed him for something they didn’t want to do themselves, like Lori.

Damned were all of them, he didn’t want nothing to do with them anymore. Didn’t think the group was going to last long together anyway, with all the shit, secrets and lies that were going on.

Suddenly there was a noise, something getting trapped in the wire he had tied around the perimeter of his little camp, making some can tops rattle together. He yanked his knife off the log and rushed towards the sound.

He scoffed when he saw Cole trying to break free from the wire he was trapped in, but the more he tried the more stuck he was. He whined and looked at Daryl.

“What you doing here, uh?” He muttered, helping the dog until he was free. “Careful, there are traps beside the wire.” He said to the air, louder, knowing Y/N probably wasn’t far from her dog.

Daryl looked around and made her silhouette in the darkness, approaching, clutching her gun. She tiptoed through the wire carefully, grimacing at one of the dead squirrels that hung there, and joined Daryl and Cole.

“Why’d you come to such a creepy place all alone.”

“Cos I don’t want to see any of you anymore! I’m tired of all you! I want nothing to do with any of you anymore!” Daryl lashed out angrily, getting on her face. “So take the dog and leave me alone, I don’t want you here. Get out!”

Y/N looked down, biting her lip, and Daryl knew he had hurt her. It felt like a punch but that didn’t stop him from keeping glaring at her. He needed her to leave, he couldn’t have her around anymore, it had only made him weak, he had to be alone.

“You can be such a prick, Daryl.”

The softness of her voice took Daryl aback. He had expected Y/N would glare at him, snap, turn and leave. Or maybe that she’d yell at him in anger for being an asshole, or that she’d told him he was an idiot, that she hadn’t cared for him to begin with, that he was good for nothing. He knew she had a temper. He even expected that maybe she would push him or hit him, no matter she’d said she’d never do that not even when he was a prick. But she just seemed tired and sad, and it made Daryl feel even worse.

He’d rather have her slapping him, telling him she didn’t want nothing to do with him anymore, yelling at him, but she just let out a sigh.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Told you to leave me alone. Get out.” Daryl said again, turning his back to her so he wouldn’t have to see her and her sad, disappointed eyes, which threatened to make all his resolution crumble down. He should have never let himself care for her like this and now he was afraid it was too late to stop, but he had to try.

“I know you’re hurting,” She began, voice still soft despite his biting words, Daryl hated how she always sounded like she cared for him, he hated how that made him feel. “Sophia-”

“Shut up and leave!” Daryl snapped, he didn’t want to hear it, he couldn’t.

Y/N didn’t say anything else and Daryl guessed she was done with him, though he didn’t hear her walking away. He turned over and she was still standing there, looking at him, and then she began to walk closer. Daryl found himself frozen in place as she approached, he couldn’t lash out, couldn’t move away, just look at her.

“What you doing?” He managed to mutter, his voice a low rasp.

Y/N said nothing, reaching out to wrap her arms around him. Daryl froze even more, his breath hitched on his throat and he wanted to struggle and push her away, but he couldn’t make himself do it. Instead, he found himself wrapping his own arms around her too, leaning into her warmth and comfort, and hiding his face on the crook of her shoulder. It felt too good, enough to scare him but he couldn’t make himself pull away from her.

“I know it hurts.” She whispered into his ear, one of her hands caressing the back of his neck, and Daryl shivered. “But you don’t have to go through it alone.” Daryl didn’t know what to say to that, so he said nothing. “Don’t shut yourself away. Please.”

That was exactly what he wanted to do, to go away, never see anyone else again, but it seemed he was never able to resist her, to stay away from her.

“Don’t push me away, I don’t want to lose you.” She said quietly and Daryl tried to control how his heart began beating like crazy at her words. “There’s nothing wrong in caring, Daryl,”

He looked up from her shoulder at that. “I don’t care.” He hated how not even himself could believe his words. Y/N gave him a soft smile and he knew she didn’t believe him either. “None cares for me anyway, so…”

“Really? I don’t care for you?” Y/N raised an eyebrow. She did, he knew it, even if he didn’t know why. “He doesn’t care for you?” She nodded towards Cole and Daryl noticed he was right next to them as if wanting to join the snuggle too. That damn dog had cared for him almost since day one and he didn’t know why either. “Carol doesn’t care for you?”

“Not anymore…” Daryl knew the things he had said to her to push her away, he still could see her face before she turned away and left. “I said something to her…”

“What did you say?” Y/N asked him but Daryl shook his head, he didn’t want to see Y/N’s face if he told her. “Okay…well, Carol’s your friend, so you are going to apologize and I think she’ll forgive you.”

Daryl just shrugged but he couldn’t even pretend that he didn’t care. It seemed it was too late for that. Reluctantly, Y/N pulled away and Daryl had to resist the urge to pull her back to him.

“I should go back before they worry about someone else going missing.”

“They ain’t back?”

“No, Shane has gone to bring Lori back, Carol told us you told her she had gone looking for Rick.”

“She asked me to go…” Daryl wondered if Y/N would be upset at him for saying no, but he couldn’t help himself. “I know what she thinks of me, how she looks at me, redneck good for nothing…” Y/N would be the only one Daryl would ever tell something like that. “But when she needs something she comes to ask.”

“They think better of you than what you think, Daryl.” Y/N said and Daryl shook his head in disbelieve. “Rick respects you.” Daryl looked at her weird, Rick only looked at Shane. “Everyone does, with all you did for Sophia.”

Daryl scoffed at that. “I couldn’t find her. Lost her trail and she got bit.”

“That wasn’t your fault.” Y/N reached out to take his hand and lace their fingers. “You did more for her than anyone.”

“I was an idiot.” Guilt and hurt were eating him and Daryl swallowed hard, he didn’t want to cry and embarrass himself more. “Thinking that I would find her when everyone knew she was gone. I wasn’t good enough to find her that first day.”

“No. Stop.” Y/N squeezed his hand. “Don’t say that.”

“Lori says I’m selfish…” He couldn’t believe Lori might think good of him, no matter Y/N’s words.

“Then she doesn’t know you at all.” Y/N snapped, seeming angry, sounding even protective of him in a way Daryl couldn’t believe but that made him feel strangely warm, those twirls back in his stomach. He said nothing, just looked down at their hands in silence.

“I should go back…” Y/N said again and Daryl thought he sounded regretful but maybe he was imagining it.

“Want me to walk you back?” He offered. The farm had proven to be safe enough but still, his camp was far from the house and he didn’t like Y/N wandering alone in the dark. And maybe if Lori wasn’t back he could try and go looking for her and the others too…

“That would actually be really nice.” Y/N smiled at him in a way that made Daryl feel better and almost had him smiling back.

Daryl helped Y/N and the dog through the wire and then resisted the urge to place his hand at the small of her back as they walked to the house in silence. Once there they found Carol, Andrea, and Dale walking out of the house. Cole barked and rushed to greet them, though nobody seemed in the best mood.

“Is she back?” Y/N asked and Daryl stood slightly behind her, he wasn’t sure if he was welcomed there but nobody said anything to him. Carol looked at him and he looked down.

“Yes, but she seems to have had an accident or something. She’s alright, though.” Andrea explained. “Oh, and she’s pregnant, apparently.”

“Holy crap!”

Y/N sounded surprised and Daryl was just more remorseful, he had let a pregnant woman go alone to look for her husband and she had had an accident. If those people didn’t hate him before, then they must do it now. Still, nobody was yelling at him.

“And Maggie’s with her little sister, she’s still not waking up.” Andrea kept explaining. We’re going to try to rest, Shane wants us to go looking for Rick and the others with the first light if they aren’t back.”

“Okay, I can go too.” Y/N offered instantly.

“Me too.” Daryl forced himself to speak, half expecting the others to snap at him, but Andrea just nodded.

“Alright, see you both in the morning.”

They all began to walk away and Daryl felt Y/N taking his hand and tugging. “Apologize to Carol!” She urged in a whisper. Daryl looked at her wide-eyed and shook his head, he didn’t know how, Carol probably didn’t want to see him ever again. Y/N just pushed him towards the other woman and away from her. “Apologize!” She whispered again.

“Carol.” Daryl called for her, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” He murmured quickly. Carol said nothing, just looked at him and then she nodded, turning to leave. Daryl didn’t know if that was good or not, if she was still upset or not, if she’d ever forgive him or not.

Y/N let out a giggle and Daryl turned to look at her, frowning. Was she laughing at him? “What?” He snapped harsher than he’d have wanted, but he couldn’t help it.

“Your face…you looked more scared than when walkers go for you.” She giggled again and Daryl blushed, shrugging. He wasn’t good with people, he didn’t need her to remind him. “Hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to make fun of you, I just thought it was cute.” Y/N took his hand and Daryl just blushed even more at her words. She had a way to make him flustered like none else.

“Don’t know if she forgives me or not…” He said quietly.

“She will.” Y/N squeezed his hand. “I guess I should be going too…walk me to my tent?”

Daryl nodded and when Y/N didn’t let go of his hand as they walked he couldn’t help the way in which his heart began to beat faster at that. When they reached her tent, Y/N turned to look at him.

“I really don’t like the idea of you staying all alone that far.”

“Ain’t that far and we haven’t seen walkers in here, besides the damn barn, and they’d be trapped in the wire. I’m fine.”

“Still, I don’t want you having to be alone after…” Y/N trailed off but Daryl knew what she meant. After Sophia. She didn’t want him to mourn alone and it made Daryl feel warm in a way he wasn’t used too. “You could stay in my tent tonight if you want, I mean, you’re already here.”

Daryl looked at her with eyes wide in surprise, wondering what she meant with that or if she meant something at all. Did she want them to sleep together? His heart began beating fast and a part of him wanted to run away.

“You look scared again.” Y/N chuckled softly. “Relax, Daryl, I’m not trying to take advantage of you.” She teased him and Daryl felt his cheeks heat up. “We have slept by each other before, in your truck, remember?” Daryl nodded. “Come on, I don’t want you to be alone…and I don’t want to be alone either.” She added softly.

“Okay.” Daryl rasped, fidgeting nervously.

Y/N flashed him a smile and then knelt down to open the tent. Daryl crawled in behind Cole and Y/N pulled down the zipper again though she left a small space open. “It’s for Cole.” She explained. “In case he wants to go out…I figured it wouldn’t matter if it’s open if walkers came, they’d tear through this thin material anyway.” She explained, matter of factly. She began opening her sleeping bag and then spreading it on the floor. Daryl stayed there, knelt on the floor awkwardly, not knowing what to do with himself.

“Come on, let’s sleep.” Y/N said, lying down over the material of her bag and taking a thin blanket. Daryl nodded in silence, still feeling nervous about the whole thing, and he went to the other side of the small tent. “What are you doing? I spread the bag so you could lie on it too, you are not sleeping on the ground.” She laughed quietly at that. “Well, you are, but over a sleeping bag at least.”

That just made Daryl more nervous, but he couldn’t say no. They had slept closer on the seat of his truck, but this felt different. He crawled towards her and lied down awkwardly, taking the cushion she passed him to rest his head and making sure to leave space between them. He turned so his back was to her, the idea of facing her making him even more flustered. Y/N wrapped the thin blanket over him too and then turned off the lantern that was illuminating the tent, leaving it in complete darkness.

Daryl felt Cole moving and then he lied down over his and Y/N’s legs, and Y/N let out a quiet laugh. “I think he likes to have us both here.”

After a while of lying there in silence, Daryl felt Y/N placing an arm around him carefully. He stiffened, couldn’t help it, he took a sharp breath and his heart began beating like crazy at the contact, but he forced himself to calm down and relax.

“Is this okay?” She asked in a whisper.

“Yeah.” He whispered back, not wanting her to pull away.

Ever so slowly, he began to shift closer to her. Y/N noticed and tightened her arm around him, shifting closer until her chest pressed against his back and Daryl couldn’t help himself from curling up to snuggle against her, letting her hold him.

“I get a feeling you’d be little spoon.” Y/N teased him ever so quietly and Daryl’s cheeks heat up again. “I’m kidding,” she said softly when she noticed him stiffing again and Daryl tried to relax. It didn’t take him long, with her warmth surrounding him as he held him comfortingly to her.

“Night, Daryl.”

“Night.”

Daryl closed his eyes and tried to sleep as he wondered if he’d ever felt this protected before, no matter it might be silly, and if he’d ever felt this cared for. He wondered, too, when he had fallen for her like that.

*

Daryl woke up with a start when he noticed something moving insistently against his back. “Y/N?” He grumbled, but as he opened his eyes and turned to lie on his back he saw it was Cole, trying to snuggle between them. Y/N was laughing, pushing Cole as he licked her face. When the dog saw he was awake too, he tried to lick his face too and Daryl struggled to keep him away before giving up.

Y/N laughed again, grinning at him. Damn, she was beautiful. For a brief moment, Daryl felt his heart filling with happiness, almost enough to forget the shit of the world they lived in and everything they had gone through, and then he kicked himself for being such an idiot. Still, he couldn’t help but smile back.

“Did you sleep well?” She asked as she sat up.

“Yeah…” He sat up too and he began to feel a bit awkward at the closeness, couldn’t help it. “You?”

“Better than in a long while.”

Daryl blushed. He couldn’t help but wonder if that night meant something or not, if maybe she wanted to be with him…He began to fidget nervously, averting his eyes from her, he could never ask her that. She’d been looking for comfort, for someone to snuggle to sleep, and she had wanted to give him comfort too since he had gotten lucky enough to have her caring for him. He shouldn’t read too much into it, lest he’d make things awkward between them. Still, after the CDC and now this, he couldn’t help but wonder if maybe…

“Come on.” Her voice took him out of his thoughts as Y/N unzipped the tent. “Everyone else is waking up too, we have a job to do.”

“Yeah.”

They sat down around the campfire and Carol passed them a couple of plates with some breakfast. Daryl dared to look at her and the woman didn’t seem mad at him, though she was serious. Maybe Y/N was right and she’d forgive him.

As he had breakfast, Daryl couldn’t stop himself from stealing glances at Y/N, still thinking about the night, still thinking if it meant something or not. He wasn’t dumb or naïve enough to think that now they would be together only because they had slept cuddled together, but still, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking that maybe, maybe, she would want to…and not only because she was scared, or sad, or because she wanted someone to sleep with, but because maybe she really wanted him, even if it seemed too good to be true.

Y/N smirked, rolling her eyes and shaking her head ever so slightly, and for a second Daryl had the stupid, scary idea she had read his mind, until he followed her gaze and found Carol smirking at her too. He had the feeling they were having a silent conversation and he couldn’t help but felt self-conscious wondering if it was about him.

“Come on, people.” Shane chimed in. “Let’s get going.”

Before they could even get into the cars, though, a car rushed into the farm and Rick, Glenn, and Hershel jumped out of it, taking with them an injured young man…everyone went to welcome them, but Daryl had the feeling this was just going to bring even more problems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We got into Daryl’s mind again! There was angst here, but also cuddles and I loved it. What did you think?
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter Daryl was upset about Sophia’s death, keeping himself away from everyone, through the reader and the dog managed to reach through to him…to the point of sharing a sleeping bag! :O Let’s see how they’re doing now…only two chapters left!

Daryl had been right, the prisoner brought more problems.

He had been with a group who had attacked Rick and the others at the town so Rick had decided he and Shane would drive him out and set him loose away from the farm. It took half a week for the boy’s injured leg to heal enough for him to be able to at least limp to safety once he were released.

During those days, Y/N had kept joining him in his camp and holding him as they slept, the dog snuggled at their feet. Daryl usually woke up before her and when he looked at her sleeping frame he was barely able to stop himself from pulling her closer, from kissing her, from trying to work up the courage to ask her to be with him. He never did, getting up and going out hunting, leaving her alone in the tent before his feelings could overwhelm him.

He still didn’t know if her joining him at night meant something more than not wanting to sleep alone or not, but he couldn’t gather the courage to ask her and risk being rejected, maybe then she wouldn’t want to hold him and be with him anymore. Still, sometimes it felt like torture, having all her smiles and little touches during the day and then her arms and warmth around him at night, but without her being his, without them being together in the way Daryl couldn’t help but wish. Still, he was grateful at least he got to have that.

Finally, there came the day in which Rick and Shane drove Randal away while everyone else waited anxiously at the farm. Both men came back looking like they had beat each other, which wouldn’t surprise Daryl that much at this point, and with the prisoner still with them. Apparently, he knew the Greene’s and where the farm was, so letting him lose could be too dangerous and so now he was tied up in the barn.

Rick had asked Daryl to interrogate the prisoner, see what more they could find about him and his group, and first Daryl had thought it was just him being asked yet again to do something none else wanted to, but then he remembered Y/N’s words about Rick respecting him…maybe he did want him to help with this…and at any rate, he wanted to know if that guy really meant problems.

The interrogation had soon turned into threatening the kid and punching the shit out of him but Daryl tried not to think it much. It wasn’t the first time he punched someone until his knuckles bleed and this time he was sure the man had it coming. He knew just by looking at him that he was trouble and bad news, he was used to people like that, hell, he could have been one himself very well. Soon the kid was spitting the truth about his group and it was as bad as Daryl had thought.

Rick had surprised him with his decision to execute the young man at that, he hadn’t seen the cop taking a decision like that, but Daryl understood the reasons. Nobody spoke against it but Dale, and it didn’t seem the old man had much support from the others.

Daryl didn’t care. He had noticed how some of them looked at his bloodied hands and he couldn’t help but feel they were judging him. He had done that for them, just like Rick wanted to kill the kid so as to protect the farm from his group. Daryl didn’t want to keep feeling eyes on him, whether they were judging him or waiting for him to voice his opinion, he didn’t want to get into whatever discussion they might have, and so he left towards his camp.

He didn’t mind that Y/N followed him, in fact, he welcomed it. She was with him most of the time now, and for someone who liked solitude as much as him, Daryl couldn’t say he didn’t like having her around, and somehow it seemed Y/N really liked to be with him too.

Daryl didn’t think he would ever want to go back to sleeping without her now, not matter it was torture at the same time, unable to have her the way he wanted her. But at least he had her holding him at night.

Y/N hadn’t said anything about the whole thing with the boy, silent while the others talked. He helped her and the dog through the wire in silence and then went to sit down on the log. Y/N sat down next to him and took out of her bag the rags and disinfectant and whatnot that now she seemed to carry in her bag. Daryl wondered if Hershel had found it out by now. Y/N took his hands and began to clean his open knuckles in silence.

“Thanks,” Daryl said quietly, wincing slightly as the disinfectant stung at his wounds.

Y/N gave him a small smile. “Is it really that bad?”

“Yeah…trust me, it is, his group’s worse than bad news.”

“I trust you.” Y/N said immediately, making Daryl’s heart skip a beat. “What do you think about this, about Rick’s decision?”

“Don’t know…” Daryl shrugged. “But something has to be done, he can’t go back to his group and take them here.” Y/N nodded at his words. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know either.” She shrugged too. “But yeah, guess we have to do something…”

Y/N took back the gauzes and everything into her bag and then shifted to sit closer to him. Daryl took a deep breath and carefully wrapped a hesitant arm around her. Y/N snuggled to him at that, giving him the confidence to tighten his hold on her, pulling her to him and to even press a soft kiss to the top of her head.

*

You muttered a string of curses, sucking your finger into your mouth when you hurt it with a splinter. You were trying to carve some arrows for Daryl’s crossbow, wanting to see if they’d work. You’d never been a fan of making arrows, though, and you were starting to remember why. It was tedious and you weren’t good at it.

Daryl had gone to bring more wood, both for the arrows and for the campfire, and maybe to hunt something too. You had been staying at Daryl’s camp for almost a week, cuddling with him as you slept, and you didn’t plan on going back to the group’s camp and your tent.

You two had always been close, but it felt different now, it was even stronger. Whenever he was not hunting and you weren’t doing chores, you two would be together, whether in comforting silence or with you telling him about anything, Daryl adding comments here and there. And then you’d go to sleep and Daryl would snuggle with you as you held him close, and you’d melt, realizing each night how much you cared for him. Honestly, you loved it, and you were grateful you got to enjoy something like this in the crazy world you now lived in.

You couldn’t help but want more, though, but you didn’t know how to tell Daryl or if he’d want it too. By now you were more or less sure he must have some sort of feelings for you too, but after the CDC and how he’d reacted when you kissed him, you didn’t want to rush anything and push him. Still, a part of you kept telling you if you waited for him to speak up you’d be waiting forever. And another part of you worried thinking maybe he didn’t feel like you, maybe he liked to spend time with you, to sleep cuddled to you, but he didn’t want anything else. Daryl cared for you, you had no doubts about it, but you weren’t sure he was the type of person to fall in love and have relationships.

You would better stop overthinking it and enjoy whatever it was.

You saw Daryl already coming back, Cole with him, and then you saw Dale approaching them, probably to ask Daryl’s opinion about the execution of Randal and to try and get his vote against it. Daryl wasn’t going to like it. Dale had already come to talk to you too, and while he couldn’t give you a better solution to prevent Randal from bringing his group here, then you’d have to stand with Rick, no matter how terrible the whole situation was.

You saw them going back and forth and then Daryl made his way to you. He dropped the wooden sticks he had collected and sat down next to you.

“He came to ask me too.” You told him while you kept fighting against one of the soon to be arrows. “What did you tell him?”

“That I don’t care what they do and that the group’s broken anyway. Give me that.” Daryl took the stick from your hand and began carving it himself.

“What you mean by broken?” You asked, frowning in confusion. “It’s not, we’re still a group.”

“Everyone’s lying and hiding shit, and at each other throats.” Daryl shrugged. “Pretty sure Rick and Shane beat the shit out of each other yesterday.” You had thought the same. “And Loris’ pregnant of Shane, it ain’t Rick’s. And shit’s just gonna get worse.”

You weren’t surprised Daryl knew about Shane and Lori, he was observant, and probably he wasn’t the only one who knew it, so yes, things were probably going to get a hell more awkward now. “You can’t know that, could be Rick’s.” Daryl just arched an eyebrow at you at that and you gave up.

“Alright, all that’s true, I still don’t know what you mean, we’re gonna stick together anyway, there’s not much else we can do…” You said and Daryl just shrugged again, it wasn’t being easy to read what was going through his mind. “You aren’t going to just leave one day and disappear on me, are you?” You tried to sound like you were kidding, but you couldn’t help the hint of worry in your voice. You could very well see Daryl just going away one day and never coming back.

Daryl looked up from the stick at that, seeming to notice your worry was real. “I ain’t leaving you.” He assured, averting his eyes as his cheeks tainted soft pink, and you couldn’t help your small smile. “Didn’t mean that, none’s gonna leave this farm, it’s safe…just…none’s gonna care for nothing but themselves no more, as it always has been.”

It was sad, but it might be true, it was realistic. “You might be wrong, though.” You tried to stay optimistic, half expecting Daryl to scoff at you, but he just gave you a small smile.

You brought your hurt finger back to your mouth, wondering how something so small could hurt like that, no matter you had managed to take the splinter out.

“You hurt yourself?”

“No, your arrow attacked me with a splinter.”

Daryl snorted quietly and took your hand to inspect your finger, though the tiny wound was barely visible. “Give those stupid band-aids, it’s time for you to wear one.”

*

The vote was done and the decision made, Randal would be executed that night.

“Hey,” Daryl approached you while you were sitting down at the outside of your tent, trying to busy yourself with that book you had been reading him. “Rick wants me to help him and Shane with…that.”

You looked at him but didn’t know what to say. “You okay with it?”

“It gotta be done.” He answered you, face unreadable.

“Yeah…”

You reached out to take his hand and give it a brief squeeze. Daryl nodded and left. Carol joined you, sitting down next to you though you both remained silent as you all waited for Rick, Shane, and Daryl to come back from the barn.

It didn’t take them long and you couldn’t hide your surprise when Rick began explaining how he had changed his mind and he wasn’t going to kill the boy, he’d still be kept in the barn until he could think of another solution, maybe try to drive him further away. Judging the way Shane was looking at him, he didn’t seem happy about it, and you could just hope it wouldn’t mean more trouble. You looked at Daryl but he just shrugged. At least Dale would be happy.

“I think I’m going to sleep before those two start butting heads again.” You said quietly to Daryl, who smirked.

“Come?” He asked without meeting your eyes, nodding towards his camp, seeming so shy you felt like squeezing him to you.

“Sure thing.”

You hadn’t reached Daryl’s camp yet when suddenly he stopped as if noticing something and before you could know what was happening he was running away. You gasped when you saw what was he running to, Dale was lying on the ground with a walker on top of him. You ran behind Daryl, Cole outrunning you, and when you reached them, Daryl had already put down the walker, knelt down next to Dale who was heaving and grunting, his stomach torn open. It was horrifying and it brought up unwanted memories.

“What do we do? What do we do?” You asked in panic, Daryl getting up and going to you. “Hershel, we have to, he…” You babbled and Daryl wrapped an arm around you to pull you to him. He didn’t say anything but you knew, looking at Dale like that, than not even Hershel could help him.

Rick reached you, kneeling down next to Dale, seeming as out of himself as you, and then all the others, one by one, Hershel included, who just confirmed there was nothing to do. You heard Andrea’s heartbroken cries, Carol holding her, and you couldn’t look at her, though looking at Glenn wasn’t much better, and looking at Dale like that was just too much.

Rick took his gun to end up Dale’s suffering, it was heartbreaking, but it had to be done. Rick’s hand shook and you heard him taking a deep breath, but before he could try again Daryl let go of you carefully to take out his own gun.

“Sorry, brother.” He told Dale, who you thought was almost smiling encouragingly, and pressed the trigger.

For a moment, nobody said anything, and Hershel was the first to speak. “We’ll bury him in the morning. Come in into the house now.” Hershel glanced a Shane, pursing his lips, and you knew there was going to be some trouble there but at that moment it didn’t really seem to matter.

Rick nodded, still seeming out of sorts, and you supposed you all looked the same. You all had thought the farm to be safe, something like this shouldn’t have happened, a brutal reminder of the world you lived in. “I’ll prepare him for the funeral,” Rick said as he looked at Dale. He was right, you had to take care of the body, but it still felt wrong.

“Come on…” Maggie was saying quietly to Glenn, who was still looking at Dale wide-eyed, seeming half in shock. Carol tried to walk Andrea to the house too, but she shook off her embrace, not wanting to leave Dale’s side.

You felt out of place and useless as you couldn’t find words of comfort, once again your dog was better than you at that, he was right next to Andrea, who began absentmindedly running her fingers through his fur, eyes still trained on the body. You turned to leave but Daryl’s hand your arm stopped you.

“I’m gonna help Rick and Andrea with this.”

You nodded and then it sunk for the first time that Daryl had been the one to end Dale’s suffering. “You okay?”

“Gotta be.”

Inside the house, Patricia made some tea, and you all sat down on the living room in silence. Eventually, Rick and Andrea came back, though Daryl and Cole weren’t with them. You looked at Rick and he answered you before you could ask. “He followed Daryl to his camp.”

You nodded and got out to look for them. Probably Daryl had had enough for the day and wanted to be alone, and you hoped that it didn’t include you. You didn’t feel like sleeping alone, that night of all nights, and you’d the feeling neither would Daryl.

“Y/N, wait.” Rick called after you. “I haven’t seen any other walker but this place isn’t as safe as I thought.” He sounded guilty. “I can walk you.”

You shoot him a grateful smile but shook your head, not wanting to bring anybody else to Daryl’s camp if he was upset. “Nah, thank you but I’ll be fine.” You patted the holster of your gun, trying to look more confident than you felt.

You walked fast, trying not to be scared, until you reached Daryl’s camp without any accident. You tried to walk through the wires carefully but couldn’t help but make some of them rattle. You heard Cole’s bark and then he was walking to you, tail wiggling. Daryl walked behind him, he didn’t seem worried, as if he knew it’d be you, probably thanks to Cole’s reaction.

“What you doing here.” Was the first thing he said, and you stopped moving towards him. Maybe he didn’t want you there, maybe he had wanted to be alone and it included you.

“Sorry, I can leave.” You told him quietly.

“No, no, I just thought you’d rather stay in the house. Come on.” He turned and began walking towards his tent. “Don’t like you walking alone here at night.” He murmured, sitting down on the log in front of his tent. You couldn’t help your small smile as his words made something flutter in your stomach.

“I rather stay here with you than in the house, and I don’t like you being alone here either.” You sat down next to him. “Especially not after…” You trailed off.

“It’s fine, if a geek comes it gets trapped in the wire. Just didn’t feel like being around everyone else right now.” He added quietly.

“Yeah…me neither…I don’t know what to say…I don’t think there’s nothing comforting I can say to Andrea and Glenn.”

“Are they angry at me?” Daryl asked quietly, glancing at you before dropping his gaze to the ground.

“Angry?” You frowned, confused.

“For what I did…”

“What? No. It had to be done.” If anything, you were sad Daryl’d had to put down one of your own like that, you knew he must be more upset at it than what he’d let out and you hoped he wouldn’t blame himself much. “You did good, I’m sorry you had to do something like that, though.”

“Ain’t fair Rick has to be always doing everything while everyone just complains,” Daryl said quietly and you smiled softly at that, wondering how he could still dare to say he didn’t care about the others after everything he had done and kept doing.

“You’re a good man, Daryl, the best.” You whispered. Daryl brushed off your compliment, shrugging without looking at you. “You did right to Dale.”

“Doesn’t really feel like it.” He admitted quietly.

You shifted closer to wrap an arm around him and Daryl leaned into you, wrapping his arm around you too and tilting his head to rest it on your shoulder. You kissed the top of his head before resting your cheek on it. You took a deep breath, trying to gather your thoughts and also enough courage to speak.

“First time I saw one of those things it was a morning after I’ve camped in the woods with some guests, a couple with a little kid.” You began explaining quietly. “We were going back when suddenly we found a man looking really ill, I didn’t know what it was back then…he tried to attack us and when the husband stepped in front of us, the monster bit him, didn’t let him go, started eating him in front of us when they fell to the ground…”

You shivered, you hadn’t thought about all this in a long while, lest you were back to your nightmares, and Daryl’s arm tightened around you.

“I didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what was happening, Cole was barking like crazy and I picked up the kid, grabbed his mother’s arm and ran as fast as we could back to the house, leaving the husband there…” There was nothing you could have done for him, now you knew it.

“But back in the house some other guests were dead on the ground while others were eating them, I didn’t know what do, I didn’t feel real, it was worse than a nightmare…” You had been lucky the bed & breakfast wasn’t too big and you never had many guests, just three families tops, or you wouldn’t be here now. “I was so terrified, I didn’t know what to do…I gave the woman the keys of my car, told her not to wait for me, to just drive away, I had to find my parents…I tried to get Cole to leave with her but he stayed with me.” The woman had been trying to call the police and hospitals, you were standing far enough from the walkers so they wouldn’t see you, but nobody was picking up and she hadn’t wanted to leave without you, but you had made her.

“I walked around the house, didn’t dare to get too close to those things but I had to find my parents. There weren’t walkers at the back of the house so I jumped in through one of the windows…didn’t take me long to find them…” You swallowed hard, you had never told anyone this. “My mom was dead on the ground and my father…he was one of those things so he was…he was eating her.” Your voice broke and you took another deep breath, trying to get a hold on yourself. You never let yourself think about this, you couldn’t, it was too much. Daryl had lifted his head from your shoulder to look at you while you talked and now he pulled you closer and you snuggled to him, grateful.

“He noticed me, came to me…he wouldn’t stop no matter what…, trying to bite me…that thing wasn’t him. So I…I took my knife and I-” You couldn’t finish the sentence. Still silent, Daryl took your hand and brushed his thumb over your knuckles softly. Your eyes were wet but you managed to give Daryl a small, weak smile. “And then I jumped out of the window and Cole and I ran away from there as fast as we could, back into the woods. I should have checked if there was someone else alive…I should have checked on the other animals, let them free…I hope some of them escaped…but I needed to be away from there…”

“I’m thankful I had Cole with me or else I’d have gone crazy.” You reached out your free hand to pat your dog’s head. “We were alone out there until you found us and took us to that quarry with all the others. And I’m so damn grateful for that too. Never thanked you enough.” You smiled but you were shivering hard, unable to hold back your tears. You had kept all this inside for so long. “So yeah, I get it, it doesn’t feel right, but it was. We gotta remind ourselves that.”

Daryl reached out to wipe your tears with tentative fingers, looking at you with sad, helpless eyes, as if he didn’t know what to say, as if he wanted to comfort you and didn’t know how…as if he weren’t doing it already. He was so sweet and he didn’t even know it. He leaned over, his fingers still on your cheek, and for a moment you thought he was going to kiss you. Your heart began to beat fast in anticipation and you began to lean towards him, but he wasn’t aiming for your lips and he placed the softest kiss on your wet cheek. It was a bit disappointing, but it was rather sweet too, and you smiled fondly to him.

Still, today it had been a reminder of how fragile life was now, at one moment you thought you were safe and at the next you were gone. It was a reminder to not take things for granted, to live at fullest whatever time you had left and to enjoy it as much as possible. Maybe it was time to stop waiting and take matters into your own hands. You weren’t going to die with regrets and wondering what it could have been. You just had to be careful so as not to scare him and made him feel pushed.

Maybe you couldn’t be as sweet as he was, but you could very well try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ow, we got a lot of drama and angst in this chapter…but also some fluff and bonding times…what you think?
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter Daryl and the reader got even closer, she shared a sad story with him, decided to take matters between he and she in her own hands…and Dale died :(
> 
> Can you believe this story is almost finished? Only one chapter left…

Daryl had already known that something bad must have happened to Y/N’s family, since he had found her alone and she had not only never said anything about trying to find her family but also she just never talked about them, not a word. Now that she had told him what had happened, it was worse than what Daryl had imagined.

He hated that Y/N’d had to go through something like that. It made his heart ache, but he didn’t know what to say, how to comfort her, how to make it better. All he could do was hold her hand, though somehow it seemed to be enough, with the way in which Y/N smiled sadly to him. He had caressed her cheek to wipe her tears too, seeing her crying had almost made him physically hurt, and he even dared to kiss the tears away, trying to ignore the way in which it made his heart beat fast, it wasn’t the moment for that.

She was silent now, holding his hand. Daryl was silent too, he still couldn’t find words that felt right. Daryl turned his head to look at her and caught her staring at him, seeming in deep thought.

“What?” He asked, self-conscious, but Y/N just shook her head without saying anything, but she kept staring at him and Daryl began to fidget nervously under her gaze.

“I was just thinking…each day can be our last, can’t it?” Y/N asked, playing with his fingers, and Daryl glanced at her, confused. Yes, they could die any day, but he didn’t see the point on thinking about it. “I mean…we should live our life to the fullest, take advantage of the time we have here cos we don’t know how long do we have.” Daryl still didn’t know what all that meant or why she was speaking like that. She must be sad for Dale, for the memories of her family, and he couldn’t do anything to help. “So there’s no point on letting fear or anything like that prevent us from doing what we want to, what we know will make us happy, or from waiting until it’s too late, is it?”

Daryl could just keep staring at her in confusion, he didn’t know what all that meant or why was she talking like that, and he was starting to feel like an idiot. Y/N seemed to notice and she gave him a soft smile. “You won’t get it, will you?” Daryl shrugged uncomfortably and looked away, self-conscious and upset. He didn’t know what was he supposed to get, she wasn’t making sense. Maybe she was making fun of him in a way he couldn’t understand, though he didn’t think Y/N would do something like that. Still, all his insecurities began twirling inside his stomach.

Y/N reached out and cupped his face, making him look at her “I’m done waiting so if you don’t want this stop me.” She whispered, looking at his lips, and then she leaned closer. She was going to kiss him, she was going to kiss him and Daryl was frozen in place, his breath hitched on his throat and his heart began beating like crazy.

She stopped before her lips touched his, though, as if waiting for something, and then she pulled back to look at his face. If he hadn’t been so driven by his insecurity and self-consciousness, Daryl might have seen she was waiting to see if he wanted her or not, since he was frozen without saying anything or moving, but at that moment Daryl could only feel like she was teasing him, playing with him, and it felt like a punch.

“I don’t know what you think you’re playing, woman, but I-” He began to snap, upset, but she cut him off by pressing her lips to his and Daryl lost his train of thoughts, forgetting everything that wasn’t her and her lips on his.

Y/N didn’t lose time, deepening the kiss when she saw he was more than willing, the hand that cupped his cheek pulling him closer. Daryl wrapped his arms around her, pulling her to him, needing her closer. Y/N tried to pull away way too soon and he captured her lips again, feeling her giggle against his lips before she pulled back.

“Guess you were tired of waiting too, uh? Could have said something…” She giggled quietly and Daryl felt nervous again, maybe she really was just teasing and playing him, but the way in which she was looking at him as her knuckles brushed his jaw almost took his breath away. “Should have kissed you again way sooner, then.” She whispered before kissing him again, making some of Daryl’s insecurities vanish like magic.

Daryl tried to ignore the worries and fears that were always at the back of his mind, trying to focus only on her, on the feeling of her lips on his, her warmth, the way in which her fingers caressed his cheek, his neck…but still, some of his insecurities always managed to creep into him.

Did this mean she wanted to be with him, to be more than his friend? She was kissing him, so it must be. Though maybe she didn’t want him as he wanted her, maybe she didn’t feel like him. Maybe she kissed him and cuddled with him because she wanted to find comfort in someone’s arms, to have a good time, but maybe it didn’t mean anything more to her. Daryl couldn’t be sure. Either way, he would take whatever she was willing to give him.

Yet he couldn’t help but wish for more, and he couldn’t help but hope and wonder if she wanted it too. He knew he should ask, but he was afraid it’d make things awkward or she’d laugh at him for being an idiot thinking like that.

“What’s wrong?”

Daryl had gotten so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized he had stopped kissing her and she was looking at him confused and worried. Y/N began to pull back as if thinking he had changed his mind and Daryl rushed to stop her.

“Nothing.” He tried to kiss her again and shut the voices in his head but this time it was Y/N who pulled away.

“You sure?” She asked softly, cupping his face again as she studied him as if trying to find out what was going through his mind.

“Does this mean we’re together or what?” Daryl blurted out, flustered and looking away from her as his fingers drummed nervously at her sides. Y/N laughed quietly and Daryl’s face heated up. There was his answer. This had been a stupid idea, he should have never let her play with him like this. He tried to pull away from her but Y/N didn’t let him, wrapping her arms around his neck firmly.

“You’re so sweet.” She whispered before pecking his lips, and Daryl was lost again. He waited for her to say something else, to tell him what was this, what they were, if she’d ever want him the same way he wanted her. “Well, I want to be with you.” Just like that, Daryl’s heart skipped a beat before starting drumming like crazy. She did want him, and not only to pass the time, she wanted to be with him. Daryl almost felt light headed. “But we don’t have to be nothing you-”

“I want to be with you too.” Daryl cut her off.

A smile spread across Y/N’s face and Daryl couldn’t help his own at that, finding it hard to believe that Y/N would smile like that for him. “It’s settled then,” she said, grinning, and Daryl nodded, losing no time to kiss her again. He still felt insecure, he hadn’t experience with relationships and being with someone, but somehow Y/N was making some of his fears and worries go away little by little.

Without breaking the kiss, Y/N’s hands ran under his vest, pushing it down his shoulders and arms. She pulled back to remove it completely and throw it towards his open tent, failing, though Daryl didn’t care. He pressed a kiss to her neck and Y/N grinned, laughing breathlessly and tilting her head back as if to encourage him to keep going, so he trailed kisses over her neck until she stopped him, hands on his cheeks, to kiss his lips again.

Y/N shifted to try to sit on his lap, grunting in frustration as their position in the log prevented her from situating herself as she seemed to want. She pulled back, taking his arms off her and getting up. “Come on, come here.” She took his hand and tugged. Daryl got up and followed her to his tent, but Y/N stopped before getting in, turning to look at him, seeming unsure. “Is this okay? Cos I can slow down…”

“No.” Daryl shook his head quickly, he didn’t want her to stop. “I mean, yes, it’s okay.” YN grinned, kissing him before kneeling down to unzip the tent and crawling in. Daryl crawled in behind her and turned on the lantern. Cole went behind him and Daryl didn’t know what to do. It felt awkward to let him inside, but leaving him out felt wrong too.

Y/N laughed, reaching out to grab the zip of the tent, zipping it close but letting enough space for Cole to get in and out as he pleased, as she always did. “Just ignore him,” she said, pushing at Daryl gently until he lied down on his back over the sleeping bag.

“You sound like you’re used to making out in front of your dog.”

“More than I want to admit.” She chuckled, crawling over him, and Daryl couldn’t think on anything that wasn’t her, she looked so beautiful, even though she made him nervous. “It’s not my fault he followed me everywhere.” Y/N began kissing his neck and Daryl lost his train of thoughts once more.

Suddenly Y/N sat up, straddling him, and Daryl frowned when her grin faltered. “What?”

“Do you think this is wrong? Being this happy after…after what happened today…”

“Nah, it ain’t.” To feel like this couldn’t be wrong, no matter what, besides Daryl was having a hard time thinking past Y/N saying she was happy, making his heart beat even faster. He could see how the thought had made her upset, though, so he sat up to wrap his arms around her. “It can’t be wrong to be happy.”

“Are you happy too?” She asked, a smile lighting up her face again.

“Course I am.” He murmured, hiding his face on the crook of her shoulder when he felt himself blush, and he nibbled at her collarbone softly until Y/N lifted his face to kiss his lips again.

Daryl gasped, stiff for a second, when he felt her warm hand under his shirt, caressing over his stomach and up to his chest as she pushed him to lie down on the sleeping bag again. He swallowed hard when he felt her fingers trailing over his stomach again before she took her hand out of his shirt to undo the buttons.

“You sure about this, right?” She questioned him again once she opened his shirt, pushing it off him and Daryl nodded, not trusting his voice, his hands going for her shirt now, fingers nervously fumbling with the buttons. “Okay…if you want me to stop just tell me.” She said softly, pulling off her shirt over her head without bothering letting him finish with the buttons.

“I don’t want you to stop. Just want you.” Daryl pulled her down to him so he could kiss her again, feeling her smile against his lips, his hands brushing over the soft skin of her back.

“Okay.”

*

It was late at night when you both finally fell asleep, only a few hours before the sunrise, and you didn’t wake up until the sun shone brightly into the tent. You smiled as you felt the warm weight of Daryl still half lying over you, his head pillowed on your chest, and still asleep. Your smile widened remembering the night, your only regret not having let Daryl know your feelings earlier.

You wrapped your arms more tightly around him, squeezing him to you gently, feeling giddy as butterflies fluttered in your stomach again. You brushed your fingers over his hair and neck as he began to stir awake and he nuzzled at your neck.

“Good morning.” You whispered, kissing the top of his head.

“Morning.” He looked at you with a lazy smile and kissed your lips. You’d thought he was going for a peck and you moaned softly when he deepened the kiss, your hands reaching to ran over his shoulders and arms, gripping at his muscles.

“Now, this is what I call a good morning.” You said against his lips when one of his hands reached down to brush over your thigh up to your side. He began to trail kisses over your neck, down to your collarbones and sternum, your chest, moving down to your bare belly. You smiled when you felt his lips on your navel, reaching down to run your fingers through his short hair, closing your eyes and humming as Daryl kept moving down.

You were lost in the sensations, totally unaware of anything that wasn’t Daryl and his touch, when suddenly you felt something cold and wet pressing against your side and you snapped your eyes open, yelping and jerking to the side. Daryl looked up at you confused and then he chuckled, face planting on your belly, when he saw what was going on.

“Cole, no!” You tried to push your dog away but he kept pushing you with his snout, whining now. “Just go yourself! Let me be!” You pushed him away from you again and after looking at you like he was very offended he decided to try with Daryl. Cole headbutted him until Daryl looked up from your stomach, blushed, and he smiled at the dog, patting his head.

“No, there’s no way you’re going to ignore me for him now.” You grumbled, nudging Daryl’s side with your foot.

“I ain’t.” He kissed your inner thigh and sat up. He took one of the half-carved arrows that were lying there and reached out to unzip the tent more, throwing the arrow out and away. Cole barked and ran to catch it, Daryl zipping down the tent again once the dog was out.

“He’s gonna be pissed when he finds you let him out.”

“I don’t care.” Daryl turned his attention back to you.

“Yes, you do.” You half-joked, chuckling.

“Not right now, darlin’.” Daryl grabbed your thighs, pulling you to him, and you giggled, reaching out to him with grabby hands and hooking a leg around his waist to pull him to you.

You knew Cole may begin scratching the tent or something like that so you’d open it and go out with him, but you hoped he’d just chill out by himself. Right then you couldn’t care about anything that wasn’t Daryl moving over you.

At least until you heard the rattling of the metal stuff hanging from the wire around the camp, and Cole barking. Daryl was off you and grabbing his crossbow in a second. He unzipped the tent and pocked his head out, crossbow first.

“Hey, uh, sorry.” You heard Rick’s awkward voice from outside the tent.

“What the hell, man! Get out of here!” Daryl yelled and you didn’t know who of them both sounded more awkward. You began giggling and covered your mouth with your hand to try to muffle the sound.

“Yeah, yeah, just wanted to talk to you about something…but we can talk later…sorry again.” Rick still sounded so awkward, it was hilarious.

“Just leave, man!” Daryl retreated back into the tent, glaring at you all grumpy and cute when he saw you giggling, which just made you giggle more.

“We’re getting ready for Dale’s funeral.” Rick’s voice sounded further away now as he walked away from the camp. “In case you want to join us.”

That made the giggle die on your lips, the events of the night before that didn’t revolve around Daryl and you getting together coming back to your mind. You had been so exultant, so lost in Daryl, that you hadn’t given it another thought. Now you felt awful. Dale was lying cold, Andrea and Glenn brokenhearted, and you were there giggling as if there weren’t any worry in the world.

“Hey,” Daryl noticed the change on your face and reached out to cup your face with his hand, brushing his thumb over your cheekbone. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” You gave him a small smile, placing your hand on top of his, grateful. “We better get ready.” Daryl nodded and leaned to kiss your forehead, making you feel butterflies in your stomach again.

You began picking up your clothes and when you glanced at Daryl, who was doing the same, you noticed again his scar-covered back. Anger rose inside you at the idea of someone hurting him like that, and you’d hunt down whoever did it at any moment, no matter it was clear it had happened a long time ago.

You reached out to caress the skin of his back, first tracing the lines of his tattoo then letting your hand brush down his back softly. Daryl stiffed, looking at you over his shoulder but saying nothing. He relaxed again when you placed your hands on his shoulders, rubbing softly, and he tilted his head down as you placed soft kisses to the back of his neck. He had a beautiful back, scarred or not, with those wide shoulders and the cute freckles, you would pepper with kisses every centimeter of it.

“Your brother did get you into a lot of trouble, uh…” You said quietly, kissing a long scar on his shoulder before wrapping your arms around him, pressing your chest against his back and resting your chin on top of his shoulder. You wondered what they had done that ended up with Daryl’s back looking like that, though you weren’t sure if he’d gotten all that scars at the same time.

“What?” Daryl looked at you over his shoulder at that, frowning and seeming confused. “I told you already that my father was a mean, asshole of a drunk who took it out on me.”

It took a second for it to sink in, but when you caught what he meant, a low growl left the back of your throat. His father had done that to him. You were as heartbroken as you were angry.

“He did this to you?” You hissed.

The few times Daryl had told you something about his father, you had already decided you very much hated the man, who didn’t seem to have given a shit about Daryl and seemed to have been an awful, hateful man who had neglected him and abused him. But even though you knew that, you hadn’t expected him to be responsable for doing something like this to Daryl.

Daryl just nodded in silence. The idea that someone who was supposed to take care of him had abused him so badly when he couldn’t protect himself made you want to cry and made your blood boil.

“Where’s he know?” You asked.

“Dead, walkers got him.”

“Good.” You kissed his shoulder, holding him tighter to you. “If he’s a walker and we somehow find him walking around then tell me, darling, so I can chop him down piece by piece before putting him down.” You growled.

Daryl snorted quietly, turning to give you a sad smile. “Actually I can see you doing something like that. He ain’t a walker, tho. Just dead.”

“Pity.”

*

Daryl and you stayed side by side during Dale’s funeral, listening as Rick talked about Dale and the things in which he had believed. You wrapped an arm around Daryl’s waist and he leaned ever so slightly into you.

After the funeral, Rick began laying plans to secure the farm, starting with securing the perimeter and trying to see how the walker had gotten in and if there were weaken points in the fences. Shane, Daryl, Andrea, and T-Dog would take care of that while Hershel and Rick talked about how to make the farm safer.

You weren’t going with Daryl, you’d stay helping around the farm. Daryl turned to follow Shane and the others, but then he turned again to look at you, seeming to consider something. He looked around and then leaned down to peck your lips. You smiled, placing a hand on his neck to pull him closer for another kiss, now that you could finally do it, it seemed you couldn’t get enough of him.

“Daryl, can we have a word before you leave?” You heard Rick’s voice and Daryl immediately broke away from you.

“It’s like you have a radar.” You rose an eyebrow at Rick, smiling wider when both men blushed as if remembering the morning. You chuckled and kissed Daryl’s cheek. “Be careful.” You told him before pushing him towards Rick.

You turned and saw Maggie looking at you, raising an eyebrow. Carol was next to her, soft and sweet smile on her face, and you rolled your eyes at them. You began walking towards the house and they approached you, walking one at each side of you, and you knew there was no way they were letting this go.

“Thought you said he wasn’t your boyfriend,” Maggie said, looking way too smug.

“I knew it” Carol chimed in. “They were always together, and that one night we stayed at the CDC, she-“

“There was nothing to know.” You nudged Carol with your shoulder gently to stop her. “And he wasn’t my boyfriend until like, less than eight hours ago.”

“So he’s your boyfriend now.”

“Yes, he is.” It might be silly, but you sounded proud. You weren’t really into gossiping and you though Daryl might be awkward if he knew you were talking about your relationship, but still you couldn’t help the butterflies in your stomach and your silly smile when you said that. “Shouldn’t we be working?”

“Dad wants you all to move into the house, it’s safer,” Maggie said and it was such a relief you flashed her a grateful smile. You weren’t sure Daryl would want to move in with everyone, though. “We can talk while we get your stuff into the house.”

“Or we can, like, not talk.” You retorted, making the other woman giggle. “Or you can talk about Glenn, really, give me details, all of them, I love details.” You tried to embarrass Maggie but it seemed not only did she had a temper like you, she also didn’t embarrass easy. You thought you liked her.

“Awkward, that’s the keyword.” She shook her head but she had a smile as silliest as yours. “It’s worth it, but you should have seen him when I told him to move into my room, thought he was going to self-combust or something.”

“Aww.”

“I don’t know if this is wrong, though…” Maggie’s smile was gone as she frowned. “Being like this…talking about this, feeling like this…after everything that has happened.” She glanced towards the makeshift graveyard.

“I was just thinking that this morning…” You said quietly.

“It’s not wrong, it’s nice to see something good and people being happy.” Carol gave you both a soft, sad smile. “You have to cherish what you love while it’s still here.”

Her eyes were watering though she tried to stay strong, and you wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her to you, hoping she knew she wasn’t alone no matter what, she had all of you. You were grateful she had befriended Daryl, didn’t let him push her away, and took care of him like you too.

“You’re right, Carol.” You smiled at her. “And we’re going to take care of each other from now on. It wasn’t Dale who said this group was broken, it was Daryl, but he was wrong. We got each other.”

Maggie was looking at you both with a soft smile but seeming to feel a bit out of place, and you reached out for her too. “Come here, join the hug, we’re adopting you too…I mean, we’re going to invade your home after all.”

She giggled, letting you wrap your other arm around her, and you three walked to your camp to get everything you needed into the house.

Daryl came back shortly after you finished. You approached him, a smile on your face, Cole reaching him before you. “How was it, any other walker?”

“More than I thought.” Daryl let out a tired sigh and you frowned, the farm wasn’t really as safe as you had thought. “We put them down and repaired the fences that were down, no more walkers should get in easily.”

“Alright, and Rick wants to have people on patrol and on watch, he’s organizing shifts, he wants to build lookouts too,” You said and Daryl hummed, nodding. It was a lot of work but it was worth it, you were going to make that farm a safe place. “What did he want from you by the way?”

“He wants to drive Randal away from here and wants me going with him.” Daryl had been petting your dog but now he reached out to wrap his arm around your shoulders to pull you to him and you smiled at his open affection.

“Told you, he respects you.” You kissed his cheek. “It was time he saw your worth.”

“More like he doesn’t want to risk taking Shane with him again.” Daryl shrugged.

“Yeah, that too, but it doesn’t dismiss what I said.” You flicked his nose and almost giggled as his expression as you did so. You wished Daryl could see his worth. “You’re the best one Rick can rely on.” Daryl blushed and kissed your lips, maybe to shut you, but you weren’t going to complain.

“We have been moving everything from the camp into the house, Hershel is allowing us in so we can be safer, just in case.” You explained. “I didn’t move your things, though…wasn’t sure if you wanted to move in or not.”

Daryl seemed to think for a moment, absentmindedly playing with your fingers as he held your hand. “What do you want to do?”

“I think moving in would be good.” You replied, honest, though if Daryl didn’t want to you’d stay with him on his little camp, there was no way you would leave his side.

“Alright, we’re moving in then, it’s safer.” Daryl nodded and your stomach did funny things hearing him talk about you two in plural, making it feel real that now you two were together.

“Okay, come on, let’s grab your stuff!” You grinned, feeling almost giddy. “There isn’t that much space inside left, I think I’m going to fist-fight Andrea over that big, comfy looking sofa for you and me.” You joked and Daryl looked at you amused, but the fondness in his eyes kept the butterflies in your belly fluttering. “Don’t worry, baby, I’ll win!”

“I have no doubts, darlin’.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that happened!! I’m so happy!!! What did you think??! I can’t believe there’s only one chapter left, I want to cry, this story means so much to me…
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading! Please, if you have a moment drop me a comment and let me know your thoughts, I’d love to read it and talk to all of you, it keeps me inspired and going!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter…I can’t believe it. I hope you have ejoyed this story as much as I did, because I love it, it’s my favourite thing I’ve ever written. I can’t believe 14 weeks have passed, I remember being so excited about posting it…I’m emotional. I don’t think it has ever been as hard to say goodbye to a story for me as if it’s to his. Please, let me know what you have thought of this whole thing if you have time. 
> 
> Thank you all who had been supporting this, I can’t believe the ammount of love this story got, thank you all so much, for every kudo and every comment, it means the world.

Securing the farm was indeed proving to be a hard job, but it was worth.

It was past lunchtime but you kept working, nailing wooden planks into the windows of the main floor of the house. It was a pity to lose the view and the light, but it was better than a bunch of walkers breaking them and getting in.

“I thought you must be hungry.” You looked up from the spare nails you were sorting into boxes when you heard Carol’s voice and saw her bringing you a plate with a couple of sandwiches. The Greene’s still had sliced bread, unbelievable.

“I’m starving, actually, thank you.” Your stomach growled and your mouth watered as you looked at the yummy looking sandwiches. Carol was just the best. She had brought some food for Cole too, who waggled his tail happily while Carol patted his head.

“I was going to bring this one to Daryl, or else he won’t eat,” Carol said and you nodded, when Daryl got too focused on whatever he was doing, he could go all day without eating and starve himself, much to your dismay. “But I thought you might want to bring it to him yourself, have late lunch together.” Carol winked at you.

“I think you just gave me a wonderful idea.” You laughed, giving her a grateful smile. “Thank you, really, I mean it.”

You went looking for Daryl who was at the top of the stable, reinforcing the weakened parts and making sure a lookout could be built there. When you called his name he stopped hammering to look at you, a couple of nails held between his lips.

“Looking cute!” You giggled and Daryl rolled his eyes. “Come here, I brought lunch.”

You both sat down to eat at the outside of the stable, and you hummed in delight as you munched on your sandwich. “Can you believe they still have sliced bread?”

Daryl chuckled quietly at that. “It ain’t gonna last forever.”

“I know.” You sighed. “My mom knew how to homemade bread, I should have paid more attention. We’ll need wheat, but we are in a farm after all, there’s so many stuff we could plant, and we have the chickens and cows…this could work, you know, this place. We could survive here.” You were working on it, it would be safer than the quarry and with more resources. You were beginning to feel hopeful again.

Daryl just hummed, half his sandwich already gone. Cole shifted to sat down even closer to him, looking at him. “Don’t let him fool you, he already ate.” You warned, though Daryl was already passing him a piece of his sandwich. Softie.

“You’re right, we could make this place work.” He said out of nowhere and you smiled, leaning to press a kiss to his arm, you had thought maybe he considered that what you had said was silly.

Daryl finished his sandwich and you couldn’t help but stare as he licked his fingers clean. Damn tease, and he didn’t even know it.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow, confused, when he caught you staring.

“Nothing, keep going, I’m just enjoying the show.” You giggled quietly, loving how he blushed when he realized what you were talking about. “Have I told you that you’re pretty hot?”

“Stop.” He grumbled, averting his eyes.

“Why, it’s true. Besides I love it when you blush like this.” You teased softly, cupping his face to make him look at you, brushing your thumbs over his pink cheeks before kissing his lips. You shifted until you could sit on his lap, straddling him, and you leaned back so you could look at him, running your fingers through his short hair at the back of his neck.

“Remember I told you I was used to making out in front of a dog?” You asked and Daryl hummed, closing his eyes as he leaned into your touch. “You know what other animals I’m used to making out in front of? Horses.”

“You were all day making out in front of animals or what?”

“You make it sound like I’m a pervert or something.” You laughed. “Well, you see, I was this teen living in the middle of nowhere, and when families with teen kids came to stay in my parents’ bed & breakfasts, who can blame us for having a little fun at the barn or the stable.”

“I see,” Daryl smirked.

“And…there’s a stable right behind us.”

“Really? You want to…there?” Daryl raised an eyebrow at you.

“Well, the barn would be better but it’s currently occupied…” You hoped Rick and Daryl would drive Randal away soon, you wanted that barn free, with all of you living inside the house you didn’t think you could get much privacy there. You pecked his lips again before going for his neck, kissing and nibbling. “But if you don’t want to it’s okay, darling.” You whispered.

With a quiet moan, Daryl tilted his head back to give you better access. You kept working on his neck, sucking to leave a mark, you wanted to show it off, until Daryl grunted and hooked his arms under your thighs, getting up and pulling you with him.

You laughed, wrapping your legs around his waist and holding onto his shoulders as he walked you both to the stable. You reached back to open the door and once inside Daryl kicked it close, leaving a very offended Cole outside. You looked around at the stable, it wasn’t an ideal place but it could be worse, and at least it was clean, you’d been tending to the horses every day, it was your favorite way to contribute to the farm.

Daryl’s lips caught yours and you laughed against his lips, breathlessly, when he pushed you against the wall, memories of the CDC coming back to you, but oh so much better. Your laugh turned into a moan when he left your lips to kiss your neck as you had done to him.

You had your eyes closed, a blissful smile on your face, and you opened them when Daryl pulled back. He was looking to the side, frown on his face. “What’s wrong?” You whispered into his ear, nipping at his earlobe, but not even that made the frown disappear.

“That’s the horse that threw me,” Daryl grumbled and you followed his gaze to find Nervous Nelly looking at you both. “She’s staring.”

You couldn’t help your snort at that. “Well, she doesn’t have anything better to do.” You reached up one of your hands to cup Daryl’s cheek, making him look at you again. “Ignore her.” You told him before kissing him. When your lips parted you noticed him glancing again at the horse awkwardly, and you chuckled, biting your lip to stop you from calling him Nervous Daryl.

You broke free off his arms, jumping back onto the ground, and Daryl’s eyes snapped back at you, seeming confused as for why were you pulling away from him. “Come here, love, let’s get away from curious, horse eyes,” you said, amused, taking his hand to walk him further into the stable, to where you had stacked the fresh hay. “Not show for you, Nelly.”

*

“Alright, hay is more scratchy than I remembered.” You giggled, reaching out to brush off some straws from Daryl’s shirt.

“You telling me, darlin’,” Daryl grumbled, brushing off a straw you’d missed, but he smiled as he wrapped an arm around your shoulders, walking you towards the door of the stable at the same time that the door opened and Maggie and Glenn walked in, hand in hand. You locked eyes with Maggie and knew she had’d your same idea.

“Uh…hi…” Glenn greeted awkwardly when he noticed Daryl and you were there too. “We came to tend to the horses, right, that is.”

“Yeah? Same that us, right?” You replied, looking at Daryl who seemed almost as awkward as Glenn. “So they don’t need anything else, you can go work on something else.” You blinked innocently, enjoying this way too much.

“Right…” Glenn seemed at a loss of words and he looked at Maggie as if waiting for instruction, and you almost giggled aloud.

“I think we’ll make sure they don’t need anything else anyway.” She rolled her eyes when you winked at her.

“Okay, we’ll leave you to it.” You tugged at Daryl’s hand, who was still silent and awkward. “Come on.”

“By the way, Rick was looking for you, Daryl,” Glenn said before you left.

“But of course, his radar must have been tingling or something.” You chuckled, closing the door of the stable and patting Cole’s head when he ran to greet you.

“I’m going to see what Rick wants,” Daryl said, crouching down to pet Cole. “Probably make plans for driving away Randal, we should be going soon or we’ll lose the light.

“Or you could do it tomorrow.” You didn’t like the idea of them being out of the farm late.

“Up to Rick.” Daryl leaned to press a soft kiss to your cheek.

*

You were sitting on the stairs of the porch looking at Daryl and Rick getting the car ready when you saw Maggie approaching and sitting down next to you.

“You have hay on your hair.” You joked, laughing quietly when Maggie began brushing her fingers through her hair only to find you were messing with her.

“Don’t pretend you weren’t doing the same right before we arrived.” She nudged you with her shoulder.

“I’m not going to deny something I’m not ashamed of.” You replied, and you both chuckled.

“I don’t know if I’m getting old or what, but the stable doesn’t seem as appealing as it did when I was seventeen.” Maggie snorted.

“Yeah…but once the barn is free, you and I are going to make a schedule to take shifts.” You half-joked.

“No way, it’s my barn, you’re in my property, join the queue.”

“Why you’d want to go the stable or the barn anyway, you have your own room…with a bed and all!”

“Yes, and with my family and all of you in the house…and my sister’s bedroom next to mine…and my father’s down the corridor…”

“Hey, sounds like a good challenge!”

Maggie opened her mouth but she didn’t get to say anything before you both saw T-Dog running to Rick and Daryl.

“Come on, there’s something wrong!”

T-Dog had gone to the barn to take Randal and brought him to Rick, only to find the man was missing, he seemed to have broken free and run away, even though the door of the barn was still locked.

Rick was already giving instructions about what to do when Shane showed up, nose bleeding, saying how Randal had attacked him, took his gun, and ran away. It was the worst scenario, Randal could find his worse than bad news group and bring them to the farm, or sneak on any of you and attack you, and now he was armed. You had to find him. Rick would go looking for him with Shane, and he wanted Glenn and Daryl to go looking for Randal together too.

“I’m going with you too, Cole and I.” You told Daryl but he shook his head.

“No, get into the house, both of you.”

“What, no, no way, I-” Daryl cut you off midsentence, grabbing your arms and pulling you slightly away from the others, who were distracted still making plans. “Daryl!”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but Shane’s lying.” He told you quietly and you nodded, his story didn’t make sense, you weren’t sure Rick was buying it either. “I don’t like this, go back the house.”

“I don’t like it either, which is why I’m going with you.” You insisted. “So we can waste time talking or we can go, because you aren’t changing my mind, I’m not watching you go, I’m going to help you so-“

Daryl cut you off mid-rant again, this time by pressing his lips to yours. “You’re infuriating,” he said quietly, gently nipping at your lower lip before pulling away. “Damn stubborn. But not this time, Y/N.”

“Daryl!” Rick’s voice called for him. “Come on!”

You turned around and began walking towards Rick, ignoring Daryl when he let out an exasperated huff. No matter he was going with Glenn, you had to go with him too, made sure nothing happened to him and try to help with whatever was going on.

“Keep an eye out, we don’t know if Randal may head back here before we find him.” Glenn was instructing Maggie. “Be careful.”

“You too.”

You three headed into the woods, and you ignored Daryl when he told you again to stay and when he complained when you ignored him. It wasn’t that you didn’t trust Glenn, you did, but you wanted to help and you didn’t want to be worried about Daryl all the time, you wanted to be there if he and Glenn needed help. The woods were dangerous at night and now besides the walkers, there were also Randal wandering with a gun.

You walked for a while in silence, following Daryl as he tracked, until you found Randal turned into a walker. Glenn put him down and when Daryl examined the body, it hadn’t been bitten. It was all too strange. According to Daryl, Randal had died of a broken neck.

“Let’s go back to the house…” Glenn said, looking as weirded out as you.

“Shane did this, I’m sure,” Daryl told you quietly while you walked back and you nodded. It was too horrible, but Shane hadn’t been himself lately and he just seemed to have been getting worse and worse.

“But how did he turned?” You asked and Daryl just shrugged. “Rick’s alone with him…Shane’s not going to do anything to him, right?” Daryl said nothing, chewing on his lower lip.

Back in the house, nobody could make sense of your discovery, but there was not much time to talk before a gunshot pierced through the air. Lori began panicking, afraid Rick and Shane were in trouble. You were afraid of that too, but probably for a very different reason than her. Daryl and Glenn were going out again to find Rick and Shane, and you followed them again.

“No, no way, not this time, no,” Daryl told you hushedly, stopping in front of you. “Stay here, Y/N. If this is Shane’s doing, it could be dangerous, stay here!”

“It would be dangerous for you too!” You stood your ground. “I want to be with you.”

“No, stay here, listen to me for this one time!” He seemed he was going to keep going, but as he noticed your eyes opening wide in terror, he turned back to see what had you seen.

A massive herd of walkers was approaching the farm, they were so many they probably had torn through all the fences. You had never seen so many together. You felt yourself panic, not even Daryl’s arm around you as he pulled you to his side could reassure you. They were too many, you couldn’t fight them, you weren’t even sure you could outrun them. What were you going to do?

Daryl told you all you had to leave, the herd was too big, they’d tear through the house, but Hershel didn’t want to, saying he wasn’t leaving his farm, he’d die there if he had to. Okay, he could do whatever he wanted to, but you weren’t dying there, neither were you letting Daryl or Cole die that night because of the stubborn Greene.

“Come on, people, we’re leaving!” You shouted, reaching out to grab Cole’s collar with one hand and Daryl’s hand with the other, ready to pull them away from there in whatever means necessary.

“No! I can’t leave my father here!” Maggie retorted, while Lori announced she couldn’t find Carl, getting back into the house to look for him, followed by Carol, Patricia and Beth. You groaned in frustration, tempted to just drag Cole and Daryl with you and leave everyone else there, but Daryl wasn’t moving.

New plan, you’d jump into the vehicles to shoot as many walkers as possible and try to lure the others away from the farm. It was reckless, it was desperate, there were too many, but you didn’t have anything else.

“This is not going to work.” You muttered, taking a shotgun that Andrea passed you.

“Y/N.” Daryl reached out to take your hand, his grip tight. “Get in a car with the dog, follow the plan, but if the farm is about to get overrun, if there’s any problem, if they’re too many, you leave, okay? Keep an eye on Carol, take her with you, and keep the dog safe, you can do it.” He instructed, his eyes looking wilder and more scared than you had ever seen him. “If this place falls, we meet at the intersection.”

“No, no, I’m going with you!” You weren’t going to split, no with the biggest herd of walkers you had ever seen approaching, not when you both could get separated, or hurt, or worse so easily.

“I’m taking the bike, Y/N, I’ll move faster.” He squeezed your hand, trying to reassure you. “Can’t take de dog on it, so you have to get in a car with him, okay?” You shook your head, biting your lip as you tried not to cry.

The herd was closing and you could only see all the things that could go wrong, and all the things that had already gone wrong, like guests eating other guests, like your father eating your dead mother, the day you lost your home and your family. You could see all the horrible things that could happen to Daryl, you’d lose your home and your family again.

Daryl pulled you closer to kiss your forehead. “It’s going to be fine, I’m not leaving you, girl, we’re going to be fine.” He whispered to you, rubbing your arms up and down softly.

You tried to calm down and get a hold of yourself, embarrassed of been behaving like that, of being panicking so much, you didn’t want to be useless. “Okay…Okay…” You nodded, taking a deep breath. He was right, you had to keep Cole safe, he was your responsibility.

“Come on, we have to move,” Daryl told you gently, pulling away from you, but you leaned closer again to kiss his lips.

“Be careful, please.” You told him, trying not to break down.

“You too, don’t do anything stupid.”

“Anything stupid? It’s you who got himself impaled with his own arrow.” You joked weakly and Daryl snorted quietly, giving you a tiny smile, kissing you again before turning and leave.

*

You were on the backseat of a pickup, Beth sat down next to you, Lori on the passenger seat while T-Dog drove. You held Cole close and you had your face hidden in his fur, doing your best not to break down.

Everything had gone wrong, the only good thing you had managed to do was to keep Cole safe and with you. The farm had fallen under a sea of endless walkers. Carol had disappeared in front of your eyes, right before Andrea fell down under the attack of a walker. You had lost sight of Daryl and his bike. You didn’t know where anyone else besides you four was.

You were trying hard not to sob, Beth was scared and traumatized enough after having seen her home like that, Patricia devoured in front of her, her father, sister and boyfriend missing. Poor girl.

“It’s going to be okay.” You felt Beth’s hand on your back, rubbing softly. “Daryl told you to meet at the intersection, right? You have to trust we all meet there.”

You had to admire the little girl for talking like that after everything she had gone through, for keeping hope. You gave her a weak, grateful smile. If she could be strong like that then you could too, you had to.

You had told them about meeting at the intersection when T-Dog had tried to drive away, saying the others were lost like the farm. You had almost taken out your gun to threaten him if he didn’t turn the car and drove to the intersection, when Lori had said if he didn’t, then she’ll throw herself out of the car to go walking.

You had been surprised, you hadn’t expected that from Lori, but you’d do the same if necessary. It had worked, T-Dog had turned the car and now you were headed back to the highway.

“Look!”

Beth excited voice had you looking up from your dog again and you saw you were approaching the car Glenn and Maggie had taken. Now you could hear a motorbike too…it had to be Daryl! You could almost cry of relief, feeling like just jumping out of the car to go to him.

Soon you could see him too, driving his motorbike ahead of Glenn and Maggie’s car, Carol behind him…she was okay too, you couldn’t believe it.

As soon as you reached the intersection, finding Rick, Carl, and Hershel already there, and the car stopped, you jumped out of it to run to Daryl. He was still on his bike, looking around as if he searching for you. When he found you, he rushed to dismount and ran to you, pulling you into his arms tightly when you both met midrun.

“You’re okay…” You sobbed quietly, couldn’t help your tears of relief.

Daryl said nothing, he lifted you up and you wrapped your legs around his waist, your arms around his shoulders, holding him as close as you could. Daryl nuzzled at your neck and you could feel his tears. You placed a hand on the back of his head, fingers running through his hair.

The others around you were greeting each other too, you were beyond happy they were okay too, but you couldn’t pay attention to anyone who wasn’t Daryl. He looked from your neck to kiss your lips and then he leaned his forehead onto yours.

“I didn’t know if you were okay or not, I was scared, I was so worried, darling.” You whispered.

“Me too.” Daryl pulled away just enough to look at you, keeping his tight hold on you, and you cupped his face, wiping his tears with your thumbs, knowing he’d be embarrassed crying in front of the others, though he didn’t seem to care, looking only at you.

“I love you.” He blurted out, taking you by surprise, stunning you into silence, and Daryl’s gaze fell down for a second. You kicked yourself into saying something, he had just told you he loved you and you were silent, he must be berating himself.

“I love you too.” You whispered, a smile tugging at your lips…Daryl loved you. And you loved him, you had no doubt about it, the realization made you so exultant that you almost giggled. He looked up at you, giving you a small, soft smile, and kissed your forehead. You had the impression he didn’t believe you or that he might think you were saying it just because he had done it, as if you thought it was what he wanted to hear.

“Hey, I do.” You cupped his face again. “I love you.” You repeated, pecking his lips. “I love you almost as much as you love Cole.” Daryl snorted at that but he gave you one of those bright smiles that were so rare to see on him and that took your breath away.

“I love you more.” He whispered into your ear, so quietly you barely heard him, and you caught a glimpse of his bright red cheeks before he nuzzled at your neck again.

“Speaking of the devil.” You chuckled when you heard a bark next to you. Cole had gotten out of the car and seemed tired of not having you or Daryl saying anything to him. Daryl looked up from your neck, smiling at the dog.

Carefully, he lowered you onto the ground, kissing you again before kneeling down to snuggle Cole, and you could just smile like an idiot in love looking at them. You looked around, your smile faltering as you took in the people missing and how exhausted the others looked, the realization that you had lost the farm, that safe heaven, suddenly hitting you.

But looking down at Daryl and Cole, you could only be grateful you had them there with you, safe and sound. Daryl got up and wrapped his arms around you again, pulling you to him.

“What are we going to do now?” You whispered quietly to him.

“I don’t know.” He whispered back, kissing your cheek and pulling at you until your back hit his chest, his arms firmly wrapped around you, and you all looked at Rick as he began to talk. “But we’re going to be okay. Promise.”

You believed him. No matter you had lost people, a safe place that was becoming a home, no matter you had nothing, nowhere to go, no plan, you believed Daryl when he told you that you were going to be okay. You trusted him. You felt like you had trusted him since forever.

You were going to keep him and Cole safe, no matter what, and you knew he’d do the same for you. Whatever might happen now, you had each other, you would protect and take care of each other, and you would be okay.

You were together, and so everything was going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And…that is, this is the end. I feel like crying, even though it was a good one. It’d never been that hard to say goodbye to a story and some characters as it was for this one. I was so tempted to just keep writing their life forever even though I always felt I wanted to end it fater season 2, I don’t want to say godbye, but I didn’t want the story to became dull and there’re new stories to come. But this one brought me some much joy, it’s the one I loved the most and the best I’ve written in my opinion.
> 
> Thank you all for being with me on this journey, but all the support you’ve given me, I loved reading all your comments, I loved seeing that people were enjoyed this too. It’d brought me so much joy. It’s embarrassing but I’m actually tearing up a bit…
> 
> As always, if you have a moment please, let me know your thoughts about this.
> 
> Also…new mini-series is coming on Monday…so see you all soon, I hope! It’d be quite different, all from teen Daryl’s pov.
> 
> Thank you all again!! I’m so emotional!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.

**Author's Note:**

> We’re going hunting with Daryl! Are you excited?!
> 
> Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked it! If you have a moment, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, your feedback makes my day!
> 
> As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.


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